Straw Vote Singles Out Top Blacks in the NFL

In the National Football League’s foreseeable future, the first black club leaders are more likely to be general managers than head coaches.

A group of those who own and operate the teams came to that consensus in an informal poll this week at the league’s spring meeting, where minority hiring was under discussion.

The reasoning is that there are already five black executives in NFL front offices. They are, in order of preference, by those polled:

--Alan Webb, director of pro scouting, San Francisco 49ers.

--Frank Gilliam, director of player personnel, Minnesota Vikings.

--Dick Daniels, director of player personnel, Washington Redskins.

--Bob Wallace, the St. Louis attorney who handles Cardinal player contracts. Wallace began as an intern in Commissioner Pete Rozelle’s office.

--Patrick Forte, assistant to the vice president/general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles. A former player agent, Forte represented his clients so successfully in dealing with the Eagles that the club took him aboard.

It is sometimes said in the NFL that there are no better-qualified general manager candidates anywhere than Webb, Gilliam and Daniels.

Here are the consensus top five black coaches:

--Tony Dungy, Pittsburgh Steeler defensive coach. A former college quarterback, Dungy played three years in the NFL before entering coaching.

--Dennis Green, 49er receivers coach, former Northwestern head coach.

--Willie Brown, Raider defensive backfield coach, Hall of Fame cornerback.

--Billy Mathews, Kansas City Chief running back coach.

--Jim McNally, Cincinnati Bengal running-game coach.

New Careers: Retired pro players have avoided coaching in recent years. But this season, no fewer than five of them are starting as assistants. And all five are black.

They are defensive lineman Joe Greene of the Steelers, wide receiver Charlie Joiner of the San Diego Chargers, defensive lineman Claude Humphrey of the Atlanta Falcons, running back Sylvester Croom of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and nose tackle Rubin Carter of the Denver Broncos.

The new group raises the total of NFL black assistants to 40--a small percentage but a larger number than ever.

Traditionally, NFL owners have tapped only two sources for head coach--pro assistants (Denver’s Dan Reeves) and college head coaches (the Rams’ John Robinson).

This policy has eliminated a lot of black candidates for two reasons:

--Major universities hire few black head coaches.

--There have been few black assistants in pro ball--only 14 on NFL staffs as recently as 1980.

Greene, Joiner and the other newcomers enlarge the pool of prospective head coaches both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Final Business: At the last session of their San Diego spring meeting Thursday, the NFL’s owners acted in three areas:

--They individually agreed to adopt some form of Coach Bill Walsh’s black fellowship program at San Francisco. Each year, a new 49er coaching fellow is appointed to work closely with the staff at San Francisco’s training camp.

“Early in their careers, it’s important to give promising young guys experience and exposure in pro coaching,” Walsh said.

San Francisco candidates need two years of college coaching experience. The fellowship is worth $1,500 there plus living expenses.

--The NFL’s owners also voted Thursday to experiment this summer with a 40-second clock replacing the traditional 30-second clock. Cowboy President Tex Schramm said the 40-second clock will start ticking at the end of each offensive play. Last year, a 30-second clock began whenever the officials thought the players were ready.

The purpose of the change is to speed up and standardize the action.

The penalty will be five yards if the offense doesn’t start a new play within 40 seconds after the end of the preceding play.

It’s a three-game experiment during the exhibition season, with the owners then voting on whether to continue it.

--Tired of their long hours at recent one-day drafts, the teams voted in favor of a two-day Sunday-Monday draft next April.