Raiders continue focus on diverse leadership in latest hirings

With President Sandra Douglass Morgan, interim GM Champ Kelly and interim head coach Antonio Pierce, the Raiders are the NFL’s “first club to have three African Americans in those key roles simultaneously,” and “no one should be surprised that the Raiders’ leadership focuses on diversity at the team’s highest levels,” according to Jason Reid of ANDSCAPE. In 2022, team owner Mark Davis hired Morgan, who is “also of Korean descent.” Under the guidance of then-owner Al Davis, Mark’s father, the Raiders had the league’s “first Latino head coach to win a Super Bowl (Tom Flores) and the first African American head coach in the league’s modern era (Art Shell).” Former Raiders CEO Amy Trask was “among the highest-ranking women in pro sports.” Mark Davis also “added to the franchise’s legacy” in this area by hiring one-time GM Reggie McKenzie, who is Black. Reid: “No doubt about it: On the matter of inclusive hiring, the Raiders have been way ahead of the competition.” Mark Davis recently “kicked off the NFL’s next hiring cycle” by firing coach Josh McDaniels and GM Dave Ziegler. In Pierce and Kelly, the Raiders now have the “most high-ranking people in their football operation aligned on what’s most important, or at least on what should be, on and off the field: a single philosophy in pursuit of team success.” No situation is perfect, but the Raiders under the Davis family have “shown much more of a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion than most of their competitors,” and the potential “now exists for Mark Davis to advance the ball again” (ANDSCAPE, 11/9).

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