The NFL, the Super Bowl, and Anti-Racism!

Donzel Leggett: Hello, and welcome to the second episode of Season 2 of the ARCC of Change with Donzel Leggett. In this episode, I will explain why and how the NFL must fix its terrible track record in Black executive leadership representation, and how Super Bowl 56 highlighted the change that is needed. I will also welcome ARCC member Colin McElligott to share his story and perspective on why it's critical for young white men to stand up for anti-racism. Now, let's get started with our show.

I am Donzel Leggett, host of the ARCC of Change podcast and founder of the Anti-Racism Commitment Coalition. Our vision at ARCC is to build a racism-free world. Our mission is to provide inspiration, education, and support for you to transform, practice, and spread anti-racism.

This begins with our process to personally transform to anti-racism. There are three steps. The first is erasing your ignorance about racism and hate. The second is educating yourself about anti-racism. The third is building the character and confidence to stand up, speak out, and take action to spread anti-racism and make positive change happen.

Donzel Leggett: In this episode, I want to talk about sports, specifically the NFL, the National Football League, and why and how the NFL must fix its terrible track record in Black executive leadership representation. That means head coach and above: head coach, general manager, vice president of operations, and all the way up to ownership. I also want to talk about how Super Bowl 56 highlighted the change that is needed.

The National Football League is the king of sports in the United States. There's no question about that. It's the most valuable league and has several of the most valuable franchises in all of sports. It's the most-watched sport—and entertainment medium—in the United States. It has such a following that it shapes society in many ways.

Television ratings had been down over the previous several years, which concerned many NFL administrators and owners. But during the 2021–2022 season, the NFL saw a turnaround. Super Bowl 56, which took place just last weekend, capped one of the best postseasons in NFL history.

The season was the first to expand the regular season to 17 games, and the playoffs expanded to include 14 teams, seven in each conference. The playoffs were loaded with high-quality players and dramatic games, with tremendous anticipation that went all the way down to the wire. The divisional round, or quarterfinals, and the conference championship round, or semifinals, featured arguably some of the greatest playoff games we've ever seen. Every game was decided by a single point, came down to the final drive or a field goal as time expired, or went into overtime and extended the drama for football fans.

There were so many great games and storylines throughout these playoffs. Many of the league's newest young star quarterbacks were matched against some of the NFL's long-standing legends, marking a possible changing of the guard. The San Francisco 49ers went into Green Bay and beat four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers on a last-second field goal. The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Buffalo Bills in overtime in one of the most talked-about playoff games in recent memory, with many calling it the greatest game ever played.

The Cincinnati Bengals reached the Super Bowl with last-second field goals and wins over two of the best teams in the AFC. They beat the number-one-seeded Tennessee Titans in Tennessee on a last-second field goal. Then they beat the Kansas City Chiefs, a team that had reached the AFC Championship Game a record four times, in Kansas City in overtime, also with a field goal.

Finally, the Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams beat the defending champions, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with another last-second field goal, after giving up a 24- or 25-point lead in the fourth quarter. Ultimately, they won the game and effectively ended the career, as we know it right now, of the greatest player of all time, Tom Brady. The Rams then beat the San Francisco 49ers in a close defensive struggle in the NFC Championship Game.

Donzel Leggett: And then there was the Super Bowl itself, which featured the first all-hip-hop halftime show—gangsta rap, by the way. The game also came down to the final seconds, with a defensive stop by Aaron Donald, Von Miller, and the Rams defense sealing the win. It was one of the most-watched postseasons in NFL history, and Super Bowl 56 drew more than 100 million total viewers.

You can't argue with that. The 2021–2022 season was a great success for the NFL. There was the drama of whether Aaron Rodgers would repeat as MVP, whether Patrick Mahomes would come back from the previous year's Super Bowl loss and win, and whether Tom Brady would win back-to-back Super Bowls with two different teams before riding off into the sunset and retiring.

The playoffs were great, as I mentioned, and the Super Bowl and halftime show were successful as well.

But all of this—all the great storylines, games, the Super Bowl, and the historic halftime show—has been overshadowed by the continued lack of diverse representation, specifically Black representation, in the league's highest levels of leadership. It has also been overshadowed by serious accusations of bias, impropriety, and racism against the NFL, including a lawsuit by one of the best young coaches in the game.

Former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores is suing the National Football League and three of its teams—the Miami Dolphins, Denver Broncos, and New York Giants—alleging racism in hiring practices and other improprieties.

Among his allegations is that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross wanted him to tank, which means purposely lose games. According to Flores, Ross offered him $100,000 for every loss in 2019.

Flores also alleges that the New York Giants and Denver Broncos conducted sham in-person interviews with him to comply with the Rooney Rule, which I'll explain later.

Flores is one of the very best young coaches in the league, bar none. He took a moribund Dolphins team that was expected to be one of the worst in the league and made it competitive in his first year. In his second year, the team won 10 games and made the playoffs. In his third year, he took the team from a 2–7 start to a winning record. Few coaches have ever done that, and the team barely missed the playoffs. Flores also had a 4–2 record against Bill Belichick, one of the greatest coaches in NFL history. No one had a better record against Belichick and the Patriots than Brian Flores.

Flores's lawsuit is not isolated, out of the blue, or simply a case of a disgruntled employee. This was a tremendously successful coach who took a team that wasn't particularly strong and turned it into a winner. The lawsuit is an inevitable outcome of 100 years of egregious exclusion of African Americans from leadership in the NFL.

The National Football League has a long and troubled history when it comes to race and representation in team leadership, especially among head coaches.

Donzel Leggett: Since it's Black History Month, it's worth sharing this little-known fact: How many of you know that the first Black coach in the NFL was hired 101 years ago? In 1921, Fritz Pollard broke the NFL's coaching color barrier. Sadly, it took 68 years before Art Shell became the second Black man to lead an NFL team.

At the turn of the second millennium, in the year 2000, there had been only four Black coaches in the modern era of the NFL: Fritz Pollard, Art Shell, Dennis Green, and Tony Dungy. Twenty-two years later, in the league's 102nd season, 13 franchises had never hired a Black non-interim head coach, and 11 others had hired only one. In other words, entering the 2022 hiring cycle, three-quarters of the league's 32 franchises had employed either one or zero Black head coaches in 102 years.

It's against this backdrop that former Dolphins coach Brian Flores began Black History Month by filing his lawsuit, alleging clear patterns of racist hiring practices by the league and racial discrimination by the Dolphins, Broncos, and Giants.

The NFL had only one Black head coach entering this hiring cycle. Mike Tomlin, the longest-tenured Black head coach with one team, had spent 15 years in Pittsburgh. Six of the first nine vacancies that year went to white men. Two of the final three, however, went to diverse candidates. The Texans hired Lovie Smith, who is Black, and the Dolphins hired Mike McDaniel, who is multiracial. His mother is Jamaican and Black, and his father is of Italian descent.

But those hires came one week after Brian Flores filed his lawsuit.

The details of Flores's lawsuit allege that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross attempted to incentivize him to tank—to lose on purpose—shortly after he was hired in 2019. According to Flores, Ross offered him $1,000 for every loss that season. Flores says that when the team won games late in the year, the owner became angry.

Dolphins general manager Chris Greer told Flores that Ross was mad and becoming increasingly angry because the Dolphins' on-field success—winning too many games—was compromising the team's draft position.

This may seem crazy: an owner wanting his team to lose in a league where anything can happen if a team plays to win.

No one expected the Cincinnati Bengals to reach the Super Bowl that year. They had just come off two or three straight losing seasons. They drafted Joe Burrow with the top pick, but he had suffered a terrible knee injury the season before. It wasn't even clear that he would return, much less play effectively. Yet the Bengals still went out and tried to win games.

Everyone who watches football knew that wasn't Stephen Ross's mentality before the 2019 season. It was clear that he wanted his team to tank. He wanted the team to lose. He traded one of the league's best young safeties after just one season in Miami: Minkah Fitzpatrick, who was traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Fitzpatrick is an All-Pro who has helped the Steelers return to defensive greatness.

Ross traded his top two receivers, including Jarvis Landry, one of the Cleveland Browns' most productive players and a team leader. He also got rid of two of the most important positions in football: the left tackle and the starting quarterback. A good left tackle gives a team a chance to win. Miami had one in Laremy Tunsil, an All-Pro.

And then there was the starting quarterback. If you have an experienced quarterback who plays well, you have a good chance to win. Ryan Tannehill was Miami's starting quarterback, but the team released him. Tunsil is now the anchor of the Texans' offensive line, and Tannehill led the Tennessee Titans to the AFC Championship Game in 2021 and to the best record in the AFC in 2022.

Clearly, Ross was stripping his team of talent and expecting—and wanting—them to lose. He then hired Brian Flores, apparently thinking that a young coach wouldn't be able to turn the team around. But he made a mistake. Flores was a great coach who got the team to overachieve, which is the hallmark of great coaching.

Not only that, he beat his mentor, Bill Belichick, whom he had coached under for three or four years in New England, four times. The Dolphins had always struggled against Belichick's team. Flores even beat him when Tom Brady was still there in 2019. He took a team that had been stripped of its talent and won 10 games in his second year, reaching the playoffs. In his third year, the team started 2–7 and dealt with injuries, but came back to finish 9–7 and missed the playoffs by just one game.

If there was ever a clear-cut case of outperforming all expectations and winning despite an owner wanting the team to lose, this was it.

Additionally, Flores alleged that Ross pressured him to recruit a prominent quarterback at the end of 2019. Flores understood that this would be tampering because the quarterback was under contract. When Ross allegedly invited him onto his yacht and said the quarterback might be there, Flores immediately said, "I can't come to that meeting. That's tampering."

Flores said that after he refused to go to the yacht and participate in breaking league rules, he was treated with disdain and portrayed as noncompliant and difficult to work with.

It's important to note that Flores was fired on January 10, despite recording the Dolphins' first back-to-back winning seasons since 2003. He was also one of the very few coaches in league history to take a team from a 2–7 start to a winning record of 9–7, and he had a winning 4–2 record against Bill Belichick's New England Patriots.

Despite all that, the owner created a toxic work culture in which Flores had to operate. He still succeeded. The owner jettisoned the team's top talent. Flores still succeeded. His owner even offered him a bribe to tank and lose. Against all of that, Brian Flores still succeeded in an environment that was set up for him to fail and that was racially tinged.

Regarding the New York Giants, Flores alleges that his January 27 interview, which satisfied the Rooney Rule, was essentially a sham. He says he was interviewed only to satisfy the rule. How did he know? Because the very next day, the Giants hired the former Bills offensive coordinator as their head coach, suggesting they had already decided whom to hire before Flores interviewed.

Regarding the Denver Broncos, Flores alleges that a similar scenario occurred when he interviewed for their head coaching job in 2019. Flores says then-Denver general manager John Elway and others arrived an hour late and hungover, allegedly after drinking heavily the night before. Flores believed they did not take the interview seriously and were conducting it only to satisfy the Rooney Rule.

In the lawsuit filed by Flores, his law firm said the coach hopes to shine a light on racial injustices inside the NFL.

Among the areas Flores said he would like to see addressed are increased influence for Black individuals in hiring; greater objectivity in hiring and terminating general managers, head coaches, and coordinators; an increase in the number of Black coordinators; incentives to hire and retain Black general managers, head coaches, and coordinators; and transparency in pay for general managers, head coaches, and coordinators.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages from the NFL, which has called the claims meritless. Flores knows his stance may end his coaching career, which was one of the brightest among young coaches. But he felt he had to stand up, speak out, and take action against the NFL's racist culture and hiring practices—in other words, stand up, speak out, and take action for anti-racism.

Donzel Leggett: Flores said in a statement released by his lawyer:

"God has gifted me with a special talent to coach the game of football. But the need for change is bigger than my personal goals. In making the decision to file this class action complaint today, I understand that I may be risking coaching the game that I love and that has done so much for me and my family. My sincere hope is that by standing up against systemic racism in the NFL, others will join me to ensure that positive change is made for generations to come."

It takes courage to stand up as Brian Flores is doing. It's just a shame that he has to, when the injustice is so obvious for everyone to see.

Seventy percent of NFL players are Black—70%! Yet just a little more than 6% of the league's head coaches, or two out of 32, are Black. That's the same number we had in the year 2000.

This is one of the most egregious examples of exclusionary underrepresentation in the workplace that I have ever seen. And this isn't new. The NFL's history includes owners viewing positions that require strategic thinking—head coach, quarterback, general manager, vice president—as roles that Black people aren't suited for. This pattern has existed throughout the league's 102-year history.

The mentality seems to be, "Hey, Black players are great. We need them. They bring high-quality excitement to our games." That's true. They are some of the greatest and biggest stars in the country. They're legends. But the owners have continued to maintain a very thick glass ceiling over leadership roles. Black players can play, but they can't lead.

The league wants you to believe that this glass ceiling doesn't exist, just as people once wanted to pretend that racial injustice and prejudice in our society didn't exist. That was until Colin Kaepernick forced the NFL to face it by starting a movement and taking a knee. His actions forced the NFL to at least begin acknowledging the racial injustice, bigotry, and systemic racism that many players, their families, fans, and employees face every day.

There has been progress in terms of Black quarterbacks breaking through their glass ceiling. Several of the league's top stars are now Black quarterbacks. But progress in other leadership roles in the NFL has stalled. Even Colin Kaepernick, who forced the NFL to face racial injustice, was effectively banned from the league for standing up, speaking out, and taking action. Brian Flores is taking a similar risk to drive change.

Maybe this is why rapper Eminem, the lone white performer during the Super Bowl halftime show, was also the only one to take a knee during the performance, highlighting the reality of white privilege and the injustice faced by Kaepernick, Flores, and so many others in the NFL and society as a whole.

Remember, the NFL has never had a Black majority owner. Never. The NFL has had only two Black club presidents and a total of seven Black general managers, five of whom were hired in just the last 13 months. Among the top 11 executives at the league office, only two are Black. Within the NFL Media Group newsroom, there is not a single Black person among the senior managers. These are the people who determine how a league whose players are 70% Black is covered.

Donzel Leggett: Just pay attention to the games you watch on Sundays and Mondays. How many of the announcers you see on television are Black, compared with the fact that 70% of the players they're covering are Black?

Let's compare this with the other major team sport in the United States in which the majority of players are Black: the NBA, the National Basketball Association. Many people probably think the NBA has a much higher percentage of Black players than the NFL, but that's not true. The numbers are extremely close. As I said, 70% of NFL players are Black. In the NBA, the figure is 75%.

The NBA has had its own issues. For many years, it was as bad as—or worse than—the NFL in Black leadership representation among head coaches, general managers, vice presidents, and owners. But to its credit, the NBA has made tremendous strides in recent years.

During the previous offseason, the number of Black coaches in the NBA nearly doubled, increasing from 23% to 43%. At the end of 2020, there were only seven Black head coaches in the NBA. Because of significant hiring progress and commitments made by owners during that offseason, 13 Black coaches started the 2021–2022 season, just one shy of the all-time high of 14 at the start of the 2012–2013 season. As the 2022 season began, there were 14 Black head coaches, representing 47% of the league's coaches.

Of course, that doesn't quite match the 75% of players who are Black, but it dwarfs the NFL's pitiful 6% in a league where 70% of the players are also Black.

How did the NBA make this progress? Hiring. A commitment by leadership to hire. You cannot close a representation gap if you continue to under-hire. Of the eight coaching vacancies filled in the NBA the previous summer, seven went to African American candidates. That's seven out of eight hires—87%—going to Black coaches. Compare that with the NFL, where one of eight hires, or 12.5%, went to a Black coach, or two of eight, or 25%, if you count the multiracial head coach who was hired.

It's clear that the NBA is serious about changing its leadership demographics, while the NFL is not. Further evidence is that, while the 32-team NFL had only two African American coaches and one multiracial coach—with five minority coaches overall, including one Latinx and one Middle Eastern coach—the NBA had 14 African American coaches and 16 minority coaches leading teams from the sidelines.

One of the biggest reasons the NBA has done so well is that it has diversified its coaching and leadership ranks through disproportionate hiring. The NBA now has 10 Black general managers and nine Black assistant general managers. Eight African Americans hold positions as high-ranking as president of basketball operations. In other words, people who look like the players are in leadership roles and making coaching-hiring decisions. African American coaches and general managers represent six NBA teams in both positions.

Leave it to Sir Charles Barkley, who has a funny way of putting things, to point out the monumental differences in head-coach hiring practices between what appears to be a lily-white NFL and a more culturally diverse NBA.

Barkley said, "I never thought I'd say this. We're going to actually have a Black woman Supreme Court judge before we have a Black NFL coach."

He added sarcastically, "What a great country we live in."

Let me put it this way: I never thought I'd see the day when NASCAR, a mostly Southern sport with fewer than 3% Black drivers, had four Black owners, including a Black woman, before the NFL—with 70% Black players—had made comparable progress.

Back in 2002, the NFL recognized that little progress was being made in hiring minority coaches and introduced what became known as the Rooney Rule. Named after former Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, the rule requires teams to interview at least two minority candidates for every open head-coaching position and certain other senior leadership roles.

Although initially celebrated, opinions about the policy have soured, especially following Brian Flores's allegations in his lawsuit. Since the Rooney Rule was introduced, 27 of 127 head-coaching jobs, or about 21%, have gone to minorities.

If there is a representation gap in which 70% of your players are Black but only 6% of your coaches are Black, you're never going to close that gap if only 21% of your hires are minorities. That will never happen—especially if you don't retain diverse hires at a higher rate than majority candidates. And the NFL isn't doing that. In fact, I'll talk about how Black coaches are let go much more frequently.

The problem isn't that people aren't being interviewed. The problem is that hiring patterns haven't changed, unlike what I've described in the NBA. That's because the people making the hiring decisions haven't changed either.

I mentioned that only one Black coach was hired in the most recent NFL hiring cycle out of eight openings, with one multiracial coach also hired. If you go back to the previous year, there were seven head-coaching openings, and only one went to a Black candidate: David Culley of the Texans. As I mentioned earlier, you can't build representation if you hire at a low rate and fire people at a much faster rate. Culley was fired after one season with the Texans.

Certainly, the team had a losing record, but everyone knew the Texans would be one of the worst teams in the league. Most people thought they might win zero games. Culley at least got the team to compete, and yet he still wasn't given the benefit of the doubt.

Compare that with the NBA. In the previous year, there were eight openings, and seven went to Black coaches.

There is no way to change the NFL's horrific underrepresentation in coaching, general management, and overall leadership unless disproportionate hiring of Black coaches and general managers starts now. In my view, at least 50% of coaching and general manager hires need to be Black.

Before anyone thinks this is somehow a quota, it isn't. It's an effort to make up for the difference in representation. There are tremendously qualified Black coaches and general managers. Those who have been hired have, on average, proven to be as successful as white coaches and GMs, if not more successful, especially when you consider the lack of access they've faced for 70 of the NFL's 102 years. Black coaches and GMs weren't given opportunities, and ownership has continued to provide insufficient support to hire, retain, and develop them.

Again, the first Black coach in the NFL was hired in 1921, 101 years ago. Fritz Pollard was a great player who was hired as player-coach of the Akron Pros. There wouldn't be another Black coach until 1988, when Art Shell took over. Since then, there have been only 19 more Black head coaches. Two of those 21 Black coaches have won Super Bowls. That's a 10% Super Bowl-winning rate among Black coaches, which is very much in line with the overall rate.

If you look at all the white coaches who have worked in the NFL during the Super Bowl era—or, more specifically, over the last 33 years, when Black coaches have been coaching at a very limited level because of the lack of hiring—the results are comparable. I would argue that the accomplishments of Black coaches are even more impressive when you consider how few have been given a long-term commitment to build a team.

Long-term team building is especially important in the NFL. There are exceptions, such as Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who has been with the team for 15 years, and Tony Dungy, who had fairly long careers with both the Buccaneers and Indianapolis Colts. But most other Black coaches are fired after even a small hiccup. In fact, five of the 21 Black coaches have been fired after only one season.

Since 2018, three coaches have been fired after one season. Two of them, or 67%, were Black. The only white coach fired after one season was Urban Meyer, following a disastrous first year with the Jacksonville Jaguars that involved significant issues on and off the field, including complaints from players and assistant coaches and a social media video of him with a woman in a bar who was not his wife. All of that ultimately forced his firing.

Most white coaches get the benefit of the doubt—not all, but many. Consider some of the NFL coaches who have had the longest tenures with one team. George Halas coached the Chicago Bears for 40 years over three stints. Curly Lambeau coached the Green Bay Packers for 29 years. Tom Landry coached the Dallas Cowboys for 29 years. Don Shula coached the Miami Dolphins for 26 years. Chuck Noll coached the Pittsburgh Steelers for 23 years. And Bill Belichick has coached the New England Patriots for 22 years. Many other white coaches have spent more than a decade as the head coach of one team.

Mike Tomlin's 15-year tenure with one team is the longest in NFL history for a Black head coach. The story is similar with Black general managers, who in many cases have outperformed their white counterparts, especially considering that they were excluded from these jobs for most of the league's history. Hiring has been limited over the past 30 years, when the ceiling began to open slightly. Historically, Black candidates have been denied these roles, and those who have gotten them have often had limited and short tenures.

Black general managers have won four of the last 22 Super Bowls—about 20%—which is better than the average success rate for GMs building Super Bowl-winning teams. Jerry Reese built the Giants teams that beat Tom Brady and Bill Belichick twice in the Super Bowl, including ending their undefeated season. Ozzie Newsome built the Ravens teams that won two Super Bowls. The first relied on one of the greatest defenses ever assembled; 12 years later, Newsome rebuilt the team around its offense to win another Super Bowl.

Remember, the NFL has never had a Black owner. There is only one owner of color in the NFL: Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan.

So, when you consider the success of Black coaches and general managers, why aren't they more represented? Why isn't there significant hiring? Why are we still stuck in the single digits in terms of representation?

Because the people making the hiring decisions—the owners—aren't representative either. There have been zero Black owners in the history of the NFL, compared with the NBA, where Michael Jordan is an owner and there are several Black minority owners. And, believe it or not, NASCAR has four Black owners.

In my view, this explains the root cause behind the failure of the Rooney Rule and the shameful lack of progress in hiring Black coaches, general managers, and vice presidents despite the success I've described. It's obvious to everyone. The owners aren't diverse, and they simply don't care.

Here's the most recent example of why Brian Flores is taking a stand: the Super Bowl, the biggest sporting event of the year in the United States.

Traditionally, assistants from the two Super Bowl teams become some of the hottest candidates for head-coaching jobs. Kevin O'Connell, the Rams' offensive coordinator, was hired by the Minnesota Vikings after the Super Bowl to become their next head coach. But the Rams' defensive coordinator, Raheem Morris, a former head coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, wasn't hired. Morris is Black; O'Connell is white.

This is despite the fact that, all year, the Rams had a high-profile offense, but their defense carried them through the season and playoffs and ultimately helped them win the Super Bowl.

Yet Raheem Morris wasn't hired.

The previous year's Super Bowl was historic because, as far as I can remember, it was the first time the winning team had both a Black defensive coordinator and a Black offensive coordinator. Of the four coordinators between the two teams, three were Black. It was also the first time both teams had Black offensive coordinators in the Super Bowl.

That sounds like fantastic progress. But Todd Bowles, the Buccaneers' defensive coordinator and former head coach of the New York Jets, still hadn't received another NFL head-coaching job. He had led the Jets to their only winning season in a decade, winning 10 games in 2015—the most wins the franchise had recorded since 2010. Since Bowles was fired, the Jets have averaged fewer than four wins per year. Bowles was also the defensive coordinator for the winning Tampa Bay Buccaneers team in Super Bowl 55 in 2021, yet he still hadn't received another head-coaching job.

Byron Leftwich, the Buccaneers' offensive coordinator and a former NFL starting quarterback, devised the offense that attracted Tom Brady to Tampa Bay and helped the team rank among the league leaders in offensive production. Yet Leftwich still didn't have an NFL head-coaching job. If he'd been interviewed, it had only been once or twice—even though Brady and Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians had endorsed him.

Then there's Eric Bieniemy, the Kansas City Chiefs' offensive coordinator, who coaches the offense and calls most of the plays for Patrick Mahomes, the league's highest-paid player and someone many believe will become one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. Bieniemy has coached Mahomes and the Chiefs to the league's top-rated offense over the last four years. The team reached the AFC Championship Game four years in a row, made back-to-back Super Bowl appearances, and won Super Bowl 54. Yet Bieniemy still doesn't have a head-coaching job. He's been interviewed many times, but it seems those interviews may have been to satisfy the Rooney Rule. He has been endorsed by Mahomes and Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, yet he still doesn't have the job.

As an update, Brian Flores was recently hired by the Pittsburgh Steelers as a senior defensive assistant. He's continuing his lawsuit against the NFL, the Dolphins, the Broncos, and the Giants. It's important to note that the team that hired Flores, when others were backing away from him and it appeared he might be effectively banned like Colin Kaepernick, is led by Mike Tomlin, the longest-tenured Black head coach with one team in NFL history. It is also the franchise whose former owner, Dan Rooney, gave his name to the Rooney Rule.

I would view this as a statement by the Pittsburgh Steelers to the rest of the league: It's time for owners to take full accountability and clean up this mess by breaking the glass ceiling, breaking ranks, and taking real action. Racial bias in NFL leadership is obvious, and the farcical nature of the Rooney Rule is obvious too.

Even NBA coaches see it and speak about it openly.

NBA coach Chauncey Billups said of the NFL's Rooney Rule that it seemed to create a "check-the-box kind of situation," and that he didn't think it was fair.

Billups added that the league seemed to believe the rule would be a great equalizer, but it wasn't. He said he wasn't a fan of the NFL's rule—or a couple of other things in the NFL—but that he was blessed to be in the NBA.

The Rooney Rule clearly isn't enough. There must be more pressure on owners from fans, the press, advertisers, and people within the league, as the Pittsburgh Steelers appear to be doing. But the biggest influence needs to come from star players.

The biggest stars in the NFL are quarterbacks. No player has more clout than the starting quarterback. That voice carries even more weight when the quarterback is a star, and especially when he is the starting quarterback in the Super Bowl. When it comes to bringing attention to racism and racial injustice, influencing society, and putting pressure on ownership, star white quarterbacks have an enormous platform—if they're willing to use it.

Fortunately, this year's Super Bowl featured two such quarterbacks: two young white stars willing to stand up, speak out, and take action against racism and for anti-racism.

Matthew Stafford was the number-one pick in the 2010 NFL Draft by the Detroit Lions, where he spent the first 10 years of his career. He was traded to the Los Angeles Rams in a blockbuster deal before the 2021 season and went on to lead them to a Super Bowl 56 victory.

While with the Lions during the 2020 season, when the country was experiencing social unrest following the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, the Lions were among the NFL teams that canceled practice on the same day NBA players boycotted the playoffs following the shooting of 29-year-old Jacob Blake, a Black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

To show support for the NBA players' statement calling attention to racial injustice, the Lions—including Stafford—decided to cancel practice.

Stafford, one of the team's captains and its highest-profile member, as well as one of the NFL's highest-paid players, decided it was time for him to speak out.

Stafford is white, from Texas, and played college football at the University of Georgia—not places especially known for white athletes speaking out on racial injustice. But he wrote an article titled We Can't Just Stick to Football, in which he wrote that police brutality, white privilege, and racism are real. He said that the team couldn't just stick to football, nor could the country.

Stafford was boldly stating that professional athletes, especially star white athletes, must use their platforms to drive change, particularly on racial justice.

He also wrote that it was time to stop pretending, defending, or closing our eyes to what was right in front of us. We have to listen and keep having difficult conversations.

Stafford explained that he had been awakened to how real racism and white privilege are. He organized summer workouts for his teammates, bringing together offensive linemen, wide receivers, running backs, and tight ends to prepare for the upcoming season. Several teammates arrived on the first day, but very few Black players could make it. Almost all the white players showed up. They were in a public park where people could see them, but no one stopped or said anything, according to Stafford.

The next day, when all his Black teammates arrived, the situation was completely different. People immediately stopped to ask who they were, why they were there, and what was going on. Police were even called.

Stafford was shocked by the difference. He had never seen it so clearly before. He knew racism existed, but he had thought it was limited to isolated places, rather than something systemic in the United States and built into the way people think.

When he asked his Black teammates whether they were shocked by what had happened, they told him no. They experienced this every day. They were used to being treated that way.

No one expected Stafford to be so affected that he would write a public letter and speak out as he did. But he believed he had to. He understood that his privilege gave him a responsibility to stand up, speak out, and take action, because he could do so when others couldn't. Matt Stafford was willing to risk his popularity and reputation to do the right thing and speak out against racism and for anti-racism.

Joe Burrow is the quarterback of the Cincinnati Bengals, the team that lost Super Bowl 56. He was also the number-one pick in the 2020 draft. He began his college career at Ohio State before transferring to LSU, where he led the team to a national championship. In one of the greatest seasons ever by a quarterback, he won the Heisman Trophy and set the all-time record for touchdown passes in a season.

Burrow was drafted first overall by the Bengals and had a strong rookie season until he suffered a devastating ACL tear midway through the year. He returned the following season and led the team to the Super Bowl for the first time in 33 years, winning the league's Comeback Player of the Year award. He also became one of the league's most likable players, as shown when he formally introduced himself to Rams defensive players between plays during the Super Bowl, as if they didn't know who he was. He was showing respect and humility.

However, while he was at LSU, people discovered that he had sent racist tweets in high school. Among them was a tweet referring to African Americans as "monkeys just going to town." He was forced to delete the tweets and apologize.

He could have left it at that—apologized, deleted the tweets, stayed quiet, and avoided controversy, as many star white quarterbacks do. But that's not what he did.

As a rookie in the summer of 2020, before playing his first game with the Bengals, Burrow spoke out during protests following the murders of George Floyd and others. He joined his Bengals teammates at a press conference outside the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. As a rookie, he chose to be one of the people who spoke.

He said, "It is each of our responsibility to affect change in our communities, not only for us, but for those yet to come."

He also said, "We cannot turn a blind eye to the racism that is still experienced in this country."

He continued, "This is not an issue of politics, but a fight for equality and life. If this nation is ever to reach the goal that it has established for its citizens, we must, we must, we must be the catalyst for change."

Burrow continued to use his enormous platform on Twitter to speak out against racism. In a tweet on May 29, 2020, he wrote that the Black community needed help and had been unheard for far too long. He urged people to open their ears, listen, and speak, adding that this wasn't politics but human rights.

In August 2020, Burrow shared a tweet urging his followers to support the Black community after athlete protests around the country in response to the shooting of Jacob Blake. He asked, "How can you hear the pain and respond with anything other than 'I stand with you'?"

Burrow has also used his platform to advocate for social justice, including speaking specifically about George Floyd's fatal shooting by Minneapolis police. He has advocated for college athletes to be compensated because he understands that many of those who need compensation are Black athletes. He has also shed light on poverty, hunger, and racism in his hometown of Athens, Ohio.

Burrow told his Bengals teammates a personal story during a team meeting after George Floyd's murder and the protests that followed. While the team was discussing how to support racial justice, he committed to taking an outspoken stance. He recalled how, during high school basketball, fans at a rival school yelled racial slurs at a Black teammate. The experience upset him and shook him to his core. He was stunned and sad. After the game, he sat with his friend in the back of the team bus and vowed to fight racial injustice for the rest of his life.

Burrow's emotion while telling the story and his promise to fight racial injustice and hate moved his teammates. No one expected him to speak out, but he believed he had to. He understood that his privilege gave him a responsibility to speak up, stand up, and take action because he could when others couldn't. Joe Burrow was willing to risk his popularity and reputation to do the right thing—to stand up, speak out, and take action against racism and for anti-racism.

Brian Flores recently explained why he was willing to risk his career by filing his lawsuit against the NFL. He told ESPN that change was needed and that the hiring numbers spoke for themselves. He had been in the league for 18 years and said the NFL was an example to the world. People followed the NFL's lead because the league was so powerful, and there was an opportunity for real change.

Flores said the country was at a fork in the road: things could stay the way they had been, or the league could move in a direction that would change opportunities for Black and minority coaches—not just in the NFL, but elsewhere in the country.

Brian Flores is brave. No one can doubt that. But he can't do it alone. No matter how courageous he is, we need many others to speak out—especially young white quarterbacks like Stafford and Burrow, bright stars who can show courage rather than follow the example of previous quarterbacks who refused to speak up. Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, and many others chose to remain silent.

Matt Stafford and Joe Burrow refused to stay silent. They used their star power and Super Bowl platforms to model standing up, speaking out, and taking action for anti-racism, and to inspire other young white men to use their privilege and platforms, no matter how big or small, to do the same throughout society.

In our next segment, you'll meet a young man doing just that—in ways even more distinctive than Stafford and Burrow.

Donzel Leggett: ARCC member Colin McElligott will join me next on the show and share his story. Visit us at arcc.org. Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and like us on Facebook.

Donzel Leggett: Welcome back to the ARCC of Change. As promised, we're here with Colin McElligott, a member of ARCC and one of our standout individuals who continues to do great work in the city of Chicago and throughout our ARCC network. How are you doing today, Colin? Thank you so much for joining the show.

Colin McElligott: Oh, well, how are you? You're in sunny Florida, and I'm in snowy Wisconsin. So that's one positive for you. But yeah, I'm doing good, man.

Donzel Leggett: Awesome, awesome, man. Thanks for joining the show. As you know, our first episode of Season 2 was all about a new hope for 2022. We welcomed three high school students who are doing great work and give me a new hope for 2022. But I have to tell you, you're also someone who brings me great hope because of the things you're doing. I wanted to make sure everyone who listens to the ARCC of Change had a chance to hear from you, too. So, Colin, tell us all about yourself.

Colin McElligott: Yeah, no problem. I'm 31, and I live in Chicago. I've been engaged to my fiancée, Lauren, for a little while now, and we're getting married on March 12. I'm looking forward to that. It's a kind of weird time to get married, with everything going on in the world and different cities handling the pandemic differently. Chicago still has pretty strict rules and guidelines around that, but it's all good.

I grew up about an hour south of Chicago in a very small community. We had four towns combined. I grew up on the South Side as a White Sox fan, a die-hard Bears fan, and a Bulls fan. I have slight memories of the second three-peat. I'd be lying if I said I remembered the first one, but obviously Jordan is at the top of everybody's mind here. Getting into debates about LeBron versus Jordan is a very common thing for South Side Chicagoans.

I live in Wicker Park now, and I work in sales for a software company called RICO, which is a middleware software company. I went to the University of Illinois.

Growing up in Chicago, I lived in a city with a lot of diversity, but also a lot of challenges. I was kind of blind to those challenges. I went to a high school in the south suburbs of Chicago that was predominantly Black, so I was around African Americans from early on through graduation. It never really fazed my brothers or me. We obviously weren't colorblind. We understood there were different skin tones and different family situations, but we didn't really see racism—especially systemic racism—very aggressively at the time.

Looking back, and I can talk about this later, I do see patterns of it. I see issues and challenges in some of my own behavior that I've had to grow from, gain a different perspective on, and learn from.

Two things really hit me as I grew up and left that situation. One was going to the University of Illinois, which prides itself on having a diverse student population. It did have a diverse population, but it didn't do a great job of bringing cultures together. In trying to make people feel included, it sometimes unintentionally kept people in their own circles and bubbles.

For example, I lived in a dorm that had a soul food night. The idea was to bring people from different cultures together. But what ended up happening was that most of the African American students from across campus attended, while almost nobody else did. By accident, it caused more harm than good, and segregation began to grow as people formed groups.

I went to college with a lot of American friends because of playing football and doing other activities. But by the time I graduated, I had only one or two friends of color. That really hit me when I moved to Rhode Island immediately after school and reflected on my college years.

I started my job in Rhode Island with a new-hire class at Schneider Electric. We had 32 people in the class, and they put us through an intense training program. Out of the 32 people, only one was a minority. There were 31 white people and one person of color on the entire team. That was staggering to me. There were probably only four or five people of color throughout our entire office.

It changed everything for me to realize that this is how many people in the rest of the United States experience the world. Many white people grow up with only one or two people of color in their daily lives. I grew up in the opposite situation, but slowly, that became the life I ended up living, and I morphed into it. That was a hard reality to face. You live with blinders on and don't really accept it because you find other things to focus on and take your mind off it.

Donzel Leggett: Yeah, man. I remember going to college in the late '80s, from 1986 to 1990. I played college football at Purdue. One thing I always remember is that our team was diverse. It was mixed, mostly white and African American. If you saw us on the field, we were all intermingled.

But as soon as we went to the training table, where we ate as a team, things changed. On the left-hand side were all the white players. On the right-hand side were all the Black players. Very few of us switched sides. I would try to switch sides here and there.

It's amazing how this sort of segregation—whether intentional or subconscious—happens because of societal norms. It's interesting that you saw something similar at the University of Illinois.

I wanted to ask you a little more about Chicago because you mentioned Jordan. When people think about Chicago, two or three things usually come to mind. They think about Al Capone, the Chicago boroughs, and the politics from years ago. Or they think about the '85 Bears. Or they think about Jordan and the Bulls.

But the other thing that always comes up is the misconception that Chicago is a battlefield and the most dangerous place ever. You lived there and grew up there. Can you talk about those misconceptions and what you've noticed about how they relate to historical redlining, racism, and other issues in Chicago?

Colin McElligott: Yeah, definitely. It's funny. In a sales role, you get to travel all over the United States for work. Every person I talk to, especially in the industrial sector, wants to bring up our mayor, gun violence, and carjackings. Every conversation starts with, "I don't know how you live there."

You wish people would talk about how the White Sox and Bulls are good again, but instead they want to talk about how terrible Chicago is. They blame it on being a Democratic city and having a useless mayor. It drives me nuts. I have to take a breath, ignore what they say, focus on why I'm there, and get out of the room. If someone pushes that narrative too hard, they're not someone I want to be friends with or associate with.

That is the global perception of Chicago: you go outside and someone's going to be shooting an AR-15 on your block. But it's quite the opposite where I live. There are lots of young families nearby, and it's a very tree-lined area. I live in a diverse part of the city, near the border of West Town and Wicker Park.

But that's not the case throughout Chicago. While the city is very diverse, it's also very segregated. And it's been segregated by design for many years. Even 50 years ago, Polish, Irish, and Italian communities were beginning to cluster together. Segregation went so far that it separated European immigrant communities throughout the city, too.

Now, segregation has created two major issues: a significant wealth gap and a significant educational gap in many parts of the city.

The violence you hear about is real in some neighborhoods. These areas have been affected by a long history of segregation, political neglect, loss of tax revenue, the closing of police districts, and the loss of public transportation. Some neighborhoods have become pockets of poverty where violence is a genuine problem. I don't want to downplay that or pretend it doesn't exist.

But people see Chicago as a war zone because something bad happens in a prominent area, perhaps once a month, and the story goes nationwide. Affluent people who live there are outraged and can't believe it. But they ignore the fact that we've shut down schools, lost industrial jobs, and seen steel plants and logistics companies disappear throughout the South and West Sides. Public transportation has been cut in many areas, too.

There was even a rule in some parts of the city that if you lived within two miles of your school, you no longer had access to a school bus. We neglect these areas. We neglect the fact that jobs may be in places that are difficult to reach without public transportation. We also neglect how expensive it can be to live in areas where people have access to jobs, services, and even somewhere to eat lunch.

We ignore how public policy has reinforced systemic racism. These areas are what people sometimes call the ghetto, and it can feel as if we're building walls that make it nearly impossible for people to get out.

That's one issue. The second is that outside firms and large real estate companies have found neighborhoods on the edge of areas where people are moving. Over a 10-year period, they completely gentrify those neighborhoods. We're going through a second wave—a second wave of redlining.

I'd suggest that all listeners read The Color of Law. It covers the history of redlining in Chicago and explains it much better than I ever could.

We're seeing a new wave now. If you go down Randolph Street, past Ashland toward the United Center, that used to be a neighborhood where people would tell you never to go, especially at night. Now it's home to Michelin-starred restaurants and some of the most expensive condos in the city.

When families are pushed out of those areas, they end up in smaller living spaces and worse living conditions. Another consequence is that they can be pushed into areas with heavy pollution.

We see these issues playing out in front of us every day. When you go to a Bulls game, you see people of all ethnicities sitting together, enjoying themselves, and watching a game peacefully. It can look as if there is no segregation in the city at all. But as soon as we get back into our cars or onto the train or bus to go home, everyone returns to their own comfort zones, and segregation becomes real again.

Donzel Leggett: Man, that's extremely powerful. You're speaking the absolute truth. For those who haven't read it, as Colin said, I highly, highly, highly recommend The Color of Law. In fact, I'd say it should be required reading in our schools.

Richard Rothstein's book presents the facts about redlining and how it was essentially a collaboration among federal, state, and local governments, as well as local civic organizations, to lock minorities—particularly African Americans—into some of the worst situations in the city.

Ironically, in many of the largest cities in the country, downtown real estate has become very desirable. Originally, the idea was to allow white people to move to the suburbs while locking Black people into inner-city neighborhoods. Now those areas are becoming desirable, and there's a second round of redlining. It's happening all over the country, not just in Chicago.

There's even a movie called The Last Black Man in San Francisco that highlights how a Black family lost its historic family home as a result of this second wave. Many Black Americans are being pushed out of these cities. Thank you for highlighting that.

One positive thing in Chicago recently is that the Bears hired a Black general manager. That's great. Unfortunately, fewer than half of the NFL's teams have ever had a Black general manager or head coach. The Bears have had a Black head coach—Lovie Smith took them to the Super Bowl—and now they've hired a Black general manager. But the league's overall record is abysmal.

The NFL has a terrible record of hiring Black coaches, general managers, and other leaders. Brian Flores, one of the best young coaches in the league, was fired by the Miami Dolphins and filed a lawsuit alleging racism and bias in hiring practices. He's highlighted the NFL and three teams—the Miami Dolphins, New York Giants, and Denver Broncos—for perpetuating the exclusion of African Americans from head-coaching and executive leadership roles, even though Black players make up 70% of the league.

Less than 10% of the coaches are Black, and I think about 14% of the general managers are Black, while 70% of the players are African American.

What do you think about this situation? Why is it important? It's sports. It's the NFL. People say it's just a game. Why is this an important issue that affects so many of the things you've been talking about?

Colin McElligott: It's the most-watched sport on television. Any voice and any perspective matter, and they're going to influence future generations as well as the generations that are paying attention right now.

People in these organizations like to sweep things under the rug quickly. We have seen the NFL evolve in some ways, and I could say a lot of positive things about how Chicago has evolved, too. I could talk about the things I love about the NFL, but there are still issues like this.

If you talk to Chicago Bears fans, they're ecstatic about Justin Fields. Nobody expected the Bears to make the move to get him. People were saying there was no way the McCaskey family would move up to draft a Black quarterback, especially after passing on Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson.

Donzel Leggett: Yeah, because they passed on Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson. Go ahead. Sorry to interrupt you. That just reminded me of that, but go ahead.

Colin McElligott: No, exactly. It shocked the world. We were all excited. I was at the Bears game when Andy Dalton unfortunately got hurt. Nobody wants someone to get hurt, but Justin Fields came in, they played the Super Bowl-contending Bengals, and the Bears won.

When that young man came in, the whole stadium gave him a standing ovation for many minutes. That was such a crazy thing to see. I never thought I'd see it in my lifetime. We're putting our whole future behind him.

With that in mind, a lot of people across the city wanted the Bears to interview Brian Flores and Leftwich. If you talk to the fans, the sports commentators, and the people whose opinions carry weight, those names came up all the time as potential coaches for the Bears. Then there were conspiracy theorists like me who wanted Mike Tomlin. We were somehow going to get Mike Tomlin here!

That never happened. But in general, we're excited about Fields. We're seeing progress in a Bears organization that hasn't had much success in many years. It's long overdue.

It doesn't matter whether you like the Cubs, the Sox, hockey, or the Bulls. The entire city comes together around the Bears, whether they win zero games or 16 or 17 games. It's a big deal for us.

What's sad, though, is seeing the Bears want to relocate rather than work with the city to make improvements or stay in Chicago. Once they move to the northwest suburbs, it will be very difficult for lifelong fans, season-ticket holders, tailgaters, and families—especially families from the South Side and south suburbs—to attend games. They'll be priced out of being fans. We've seen that happen to many Cubs fans, and now we're seeing it happen again with the White Sox.

Donzel Leggett: Man, first, thank you for your insight. I forgot about this issue of whether the Bears would ever draft a Black quarterback. If you pass on Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson, I don't want to say anything bad about Mitch Trubisky, but he played only one year at North Carolina. There's no way you give up what they did and make those decisions. They made up for it with Justin Fields, but it's good to hear that fans have been pushing for change.

I thought Brian Flores would have been a perfect fit with the Bears. It's good to hear that the fan base was behind him, because that helps drive the change we need in sports.

As you know, when we see things happen in sports, they tend to affect society. Jackie Robinson is a perfect example of that—how he integrated baseball and how that affected society.

I also think we need star players in the NFL if this is going to change and have an impact outside the league. We need the players who make the most money, get the most screen time, and have the most important roles on the field: the quarterbacks. And we need white quarterbacks to speak up.

Historically, they haven't. You've rarely heard Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, or Peyton Manning speak out about racial inequities in the NFL or society. But this year's Super Bowl featured two young quarterbacks who did: Matt Stafford, quarterback for the winning Los Angeles Rams, and Joe Burrow, quarterback for the Bengals.

Both have made very public statements against racism and for anti-racism, calling on white Americans to wake up, recognize that systemic racism exists, and understand that the only way it will change is if they take action. That was one of the bright spots of this year's Super Bowl.

I want to ask you: Why is it important for young white men—not just quarterbacks or young quarterbacks, but young white men—to take a stand against racism and speak up for anti-racism? You're one of them. Why is it so important for you to do that?

Colin McElligott: I think it's about seeing and accepting that we're privileged. Even if you grow up working-class or in a poorer class, white men have more opportunities to break out of that cycle. It's easier for a white man to do that than it is for white women or any minority.

Once you accept and acknowledge that, it's easier to have a civil conversation and show people real statistics, rather than relying on exaggerated opinions.

I go back to something pretty important. If you watch the HBO show Watchmen, it opens with the Tulsa race massacre. I've asked a lot of my friends whether they learned about that in school. None of us knew about it until we watched that television show, which was supposed to be fictional. That was the only nonfiction event they showed in the entire program.

It was pretty crazy to realize that our history books don't cover some of these situations properly, including the Chicago race riots. I don't remember learning about them, even though they happened just 45 minutes north of where I live and where I've lived for eight years. Nobody talks about it, or they brush it under the rug.

When someone speaks out in a very public space, it causes people to listen more and face the facts.

But, as you said, all voices matter. I volunteer with a group called HeadCount, where we register voters at concerts, marches, and other large gatherings. Many people want to debate us and say their vote or voice doesn't matter.

I want to share an example of a really interesting story from last year. High school students learned about a recycling plant in an affluent part of Chicago that had high pollution levels, and it was shut down. What did the corporation do? It moved to a poorer neighborhood, mostly Latino, in the southern suburbs. The company said it would bring jobs, but it also brought high pollution levels, causing short- and long-term lung problems and other issues for the community.

A group of high school students began organizing. It started with one student who laid down in front of the building and went on a hunger strike. More and more people joined. It began with a 17-year-old high school student.

On February 18, 2022, the Chicago Department of Public Health denied the recycling permit application to operate the plant on the Southeast Side. These high school students used their voices to get the attention of the Chicago Department of Public Health and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and they helped stop a major company. They were high schoolers, and their voices made a difference.

To take it even further, I don't know if you've read Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell, but I recommend it to listeners.

Donzel Leggett: I hadn't heard about that one. I love Malcolm Gladwell, so I'm writing it down. Talking to Strangers.

Colin McElligott: Yeah, it's a great book. He has a lot of stories focused on racial tensions and situations in Chicago. I don't want to spoil the book, but one story is about a Black musician named Daryl Davis who played blues and jazz in nightclubs. He played with Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, and B.B. King.

He was playing at a club when a Klansman, who didn't realize the musician was Black, asked him why he was stealing the white musicians' style. Davis told him that he had actually taught them their style. He sat down with the man the next day and asked him why he was afraid of him. He explained that he was a normal human being who liked similar things.

There's more to the story, but Davis actually convinced the man to leave the Klan. He then made it his mission to do more of that kind of work.

Talk about bravery. He attended Klan meetings and sat down with grandmasters to debate them. One man who led one of the largest factions even made Daryl Davis the godfather of his baby.

Donzel Leggett: Oh, my gosh. Wow.

Colin McElligott: This guy was on the front lines, using his voice and doing brave things to make change. If that's not inspiring, I don't know what is.

But what I'll tell you is that you inspired me. I was seeing a lot of these things, and I was having memories because so many major racial-tension situations have happened over the last six years in Illinois, outside Illinois, and throughout the United States.

We're the only country where you see these large public situations of someone being pulled over by police and then shot, along with so many mass shootings. Think about Dylann Roof—I don't even want to remember his last name. He went into a Black church, shot people, walked out, and lived. He wasn't gunned down by the police.

That's astonishing when you really think about it. He committed mass murder, and instead of shooting a suspect who was armed and dangerous, they arrested him alive. If he had been from another racial group, I would wager that he wouldn't be alive.

Having these difficult conversations can be uncomfortable. But joining ARCC after seeing you on LinkedIn, speaking out as an executive and leader in a very public role, inspired me to challenge injustice among my peers and family members. I started doing more with coworkers, strangers, and people in social circles.

By joining the group and meeting other members, I've found ways to do that in a more civil manner. I'm not trying to make people leave a room. Instead, I challenge their thoughts, gather opinions, and use evidence and history to persuade people to change their minds. If they don't, I walk away.

Knowing I have that ability—and hopefully influencing others to be brave enough to do the same—means one voice can become a thousand voices. It makes my voice stronger.

I hope that hearing this will encourage others to be brave and do the same. But I have to thank you. You, Daryl Davis, and others have inspired me to be much braver, not just in this work but in life in general.

I recently took a big leap at work. I changed roles, leaving a big company to join a kind of startup. Before joining ARCC, hearing different perspectives, and getting out of my comfort zone, I never would have done that. You live your life in a comfort zone, and I never would have taken that leap. So I have to thank you and the group a lot.

Donzel Leggett: Wow, Colin. I don't know how to follow that. You covered so many different aspects. There were probably 10 questions I was going to ask that you've already answered. I'm sure our audience is amazed and really taking in the gift you're giving by sharing your experiences.

And thank you for the kind words. Inspiring people is certainly part of my mission, but you're doing the same thing. You're inspiring people, too.

I want to give you one last opportunity. Is there one message you want to leave the audience with before you sign off?

Colin McElligott: Yeah. Just be brave. Educate yourself. Don't take what somebody is shouting at you on the news screen as the truth about a situation. I think it's important to have an informed opinion.

When you hear something that makes you uncomfortable or that you don't agree with, especially when it comes from a loved one or someone close to you, take a chance and challenge it. Those are often the people with whom you can work things out.

Every time you do that, you'll get braver and better at navigating those conversations. If we don't do that, we'll remain stuck in the same status quo we're in today. The goal is for each generation to get better over time. Day by day, minute by minute, we can improve and make life more equal for everyone.

Donzel Leggett: Thank you so much, Colin. And to our audience, I want to thank Colin for all the great work he's doing. I also want to give him some real praise because I can personally attest that Colin is a true leader.

As he said, he didn't know me. We'd never met. But he reached out because he felt a need to do something. He's not a star quarterback. He didn't play in the Super Bowl. He's not a social media star. He's someone trying to use whatever platform he has to drive change and spread anti-racism.

We need more people like Colin. We need more people like Valerie, Rosa, and Sarah, who joined us in our previous episode. We need more people who, as Colin said, have the courage to stand up, speak out, and take action.

Thank you, Colin. I'm proud that you're part of ARCC, and I'm proud to have you as a friend. Enjoy the rest of your day and afternoon. And if we don't talk again before your wedding, congratulations in advance!

Colin McElligott: I really appreciate that. Thank you for the kind words. If anybody wants to reach out to me, feel free. I'm happy to have a conversation. Thanks again. Enjoy your weekend, and hopefully we'll catch up sooner rather than later.

Donzel Leggett: All right, everyone, Colin McElligott, an ARCC member driving positive change and spreading anti-racism. Have a good one, Colin. We'll talk again soon.

Colin McElligott: Thanks. Bye.

To find the ARCC of Change podcast with Donzel Leggett and learn more about the Anti-Racism Commitment Coalition, please visit joinarcc.org. You can also subscribe to the ARCC of Change with Donzel Leggett on your favorite podcast-hosting sites.

I look forward to our next episode and another opportunity to inspire you to become part of the movement that will change the world by eradicating racism once and for all. Until next time, stay safe, and continue to ask yourself, "Am I doing enough?" Remember that none of us are doing enough as long as racism and hate still exist. Thanks for listening, and goodbye.

The ARCC of Change podcast with Donzel Leggett is brought to you by the Anti-Racism Commitment Coalition. To learn more about ARCC, donate to our cause, and join the coalition, visit joinarcc.org. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss an episode, and share this podcast to help spread our mission to change the world by ending racism once and for all. Thanks for listening. Until next time, stay safe and be inspired.