NFL MINORITY COACHING FELLOWSHIP INCLUDES 68 PARTICIPANTS
Sixty-eight African-American coaches took part in this summer’s NFL Minority Coaching Fellowship Program, hoping to soon join the many past participants who are now full-time NFL coaches.
More than 500 coaches have participated in the training camps of NFL teams since the program was introduced in 1987. Former fellowship coaches on 2000 NFL staffs include JAMES DANIEL (Atlanta), HERMAN EDWARDS (Tampa Bay), WOODROW LOWE (Oakland), JOHNNIE LYNN (New York Giants), LE CHARLS MC DANIEL (Washington), JAMES SAXON (Buffalo), SHERMAN SMITH (Tennessee) and GEORGE WARHOP (Arizona).
As part of training-camp coaching staffs, the fellowship coaches perform duties that mirror those of full-time NFL assistant coaches. They become working members of NFL staffs for the summer and are responsible for numerous assignments, including planning and directing workouts, formulating scrimmage and preseason-game strategies, breaking down videotape, and evaluating players.
"The program has served its purpose well since 1987," says Buffalo Bills head coach WADE PHILLIPS.
The value of the program has been seen first-hand by Phillips. This year, Phillips added Saxon to his staff as a running backs coach after he spent last summer as an intern in the program with Buffalo.
Another successful graduate of the program is Tennessee’s Smith, the Titans’ running backs coach.
An eight-year NFL running back with Seattle (1976-82) and San Diego (1983), Smith led the Seahawks in rushing in each of the expansion team’s first four years. After retiring in ’84 and coaching first in high school and then college, Smith took part in the fellowship program in 1993 under head coach MARV LEVY of Buffalo and in 1994 under TOM FLORES in Seattle.
"It was a great experience," Smith says. "It showed me that I could coach at the NFL level. I was impressed with the coaches I worked for as far as the way they related to players and coaches. It was valuable to see how they managed their teams."
The participants in the 2000 program:
2000 NFL MINORITY COACHING FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
| Arizona | Gary Emanuel (Purdue); Willard Scissum (Morehouse) | |
| Atlanta | Lynn Cain (Southwest Baptist); Rodney Gardner (Georgia) | |
| Baltimore | Mose Rison (Stanford); James West (Millersville) | |
| Buffalo | Derrick Burroughs; Andrew Dees (Stony Brook) | |
| Carolina | Fred Manuel (Lincoln); Everette Sands (Citadel) | |
| Chicago | Stanley Clayton (Princeton); Ron Lee (Colorado State); Chris Scott (Tennessee State); Gerard Wilcher (Massachusetts); | |
| Cincinnati | Kelvin Moore (Former Bengals player) | |
| Cleveland | Michael Gunthrop (Western Carolina); Michael Pettaway Tomlin (Cincinnati) | |
| Dallas | Kevin O’Neal (Scottish Claymores, NFLEL); Al Simmons (California); Elwood Wyatt (Texas A & M) | |
| Denver | Kai Bynum (Wyoming); Jon Embree (Colorado) | |
| Detroit | Damon Frenchers (Delaware State); Ivin Jasper (Georgia Southern) | |
| Green Bay | Stan Drayton (Villanova); Ron Gould (California); Bruce Tall (Harvard) | |
| Indianapolis | Richard Glover (New Mexico State); Norries Wilson (Connecticut) | |
| Jacksonville | Greg Smith (Tennessee/Knoxville) | |
| Kansas City | Alfonza "Pep" Hamilton (Howard) | |
| Miami | Darryl Bullock (New Hampshire); Charlie Camp (San Diego State); Chuck Jones (Frankfurt Galaxy, NFLEL); Jason Swepson (Boston College); Theo Young (Rice) | |
| Minnesota | Lawrence Matthews; Sid Pillai; Robert Talley (Dartmouth) | |
| New England | Pepper Johnson (Former Giants, Browns, Lions, Jets player); Greg Knox (Auburn) | |
| New Orleans | Todd Middleton (Kansas) | |
| New York Giants | Donald Dkyes (Delta State); Derek Mason (Bucknell); Ron Prince (Cornell) | |
| New York Jets | Michael London (Boston College) | |
| Oakland | Chris Brasfield (Southwest Texas State); Kenwick Thompson (Harding) | |
| Philadelphia | Robert Anae (Texas Tech); James Franklin (Maryland); Ricky Hunley (Missouri-Columbia) | |
| Pittsburgh | Tyrone Dixon (Cincinnati) | |
| St. Louis | Dino Babers (Arizona); Thurmond Moore (Syracuse); Dave Ogas (Santa Ana); Andre Waters (South Florida) | |
| San Diego | Lee Hull (Holy Cross); Donovan Rose (Hampton); Vance Singletary (Hawaii) | |
| San Francisco | Jimmy Graves (Butler); Robert Prince (Portland State) | |
| Seattle | Karl Dunbar (LSU); Buzz Preston (Stanford) | |
| Tampa Bay | Bradley Sherrod (Duke); Kevin Sumlin (Purdue) | |
| Tennessee | Steven Leach (UNLV) | |
| Washington | Alfredo Roberts (Florida Atlantic); Brian Steward (Missouri) |