NFL's coaching agents influencing hiring processes is troubling, but not surprising

As the Chicago Bears get another head coaching search underway, they find themselves as the subject of some unexpected scrutiny, courtesy of the NFL.

According to a report from ESPN's Kalyn Kahler, the Bears' last two head coaching hires have been represented by the same agent, Trace Armstrong and Athletes First. Armstrong also represented three former offensive coordinators, and the current general manager, Ryan Poles.

Commissioner Roger Goodell and the league were concerned about the influence Armstrong and his agency were exerting over the hiring process in Chicago, but more broadly worried about the influence agents had over hiring coaches across the league, via a practice known as packaging.

And the league is right to be concerned.

Packaging is essentially where a general manager hires a head coach repped by the same agency they are, and that coach brings in staff members who are also in that agent's camp. In theory, it helps coaches identify candidates they know, trust, and who can do the job.

In practice, though, it denies potentially qualified candidates opportunities because they don't have the proper representation and network to get jobs where they could thrive. This is especially true for minority candidates; in many cases, they don't have the same network via agencies that white coaches do. According to Kahler, league data indicates that just 16.6 percent, or four coaches who were believed to be part of packages around the league, were people of color.

If the goal of the hiring process is to get the best coaches to do a job, which is what the NFL wants these processes to be, then packaging and relying on agents to find you the best candidates is a serious problem. It limits the ability of good coaches to get a chance at a job, solely because they aren't repped by the right people.

But, if you've followed football for any length of time, particularly college football, none of this is remotely surprising.

If you've followed college football's hiring cycle for any length of time, you know that there's one agent who virtually runs the show in most hiring processes: Jimmy Sexton. Here's a sample of the names Sexton represents: Nick Saban, Kalen DeBoer, Steve Sarkisian, Mike Norvell, Dan Lanning, Lane Kiffin, Kirby Smart, James Franklin and Dabo Swinney. If you're a major college coach, you're probably repped by Sexton.

And Sexton has influence in coaching searches, too; if you notice, many of those names were among the top targets for the Alabama jobe after Saban retired last year, and DeBoer got it.

Football touts itself as a meritocracy, especially in coaching; if you're a good coach, you'll get a good job. But pay attention long enough and you realize very quickly that that's only partially true. Talent is great, yes, but if you want to get the opportunities at the top of the sport, it's much more about who you know. That's true in college, and it's true in the NFL.

It's a networking game; build relationships with other people, and when it's time to get another job (and you will need another job at some point), and you're more likely to get hired. The coaching world is small, and the more people you know within it, the more likely you are to get play for new jobs.

And ultimately, that's going to be virtually impossible to change; there are too many candidates for owners or GMs to keep track of on their own; they're always going to bring in outside help, and that outside help will always have agendas and biases. And organizations are human as well; they'll have agents they prefer working with, consultants they trust more than others,

The league is right to be concerned; if agents are exerting too much influence over the hiring process, it becomes impossible to know if the candidates you're getting are the best candidates that exist. It's always going to be a delicate balance of ensuring candidates are deserving, but ultimately, no one should be surprised that teams are drifting towards particular agents. Make sure you're putting in guardrails and enforcing them, but recognizing that true meritocracy is impossible.

It's the way the sport has always worked, and the way it will keep working, because you can't change human nature.

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