Michael Irvin claims Lovie Smith victim of NFL's racism: "They use African-American coaches as scapegoats"

For the second straight year, the Houston Texans fired a black head coach after a single season. Lovie Smith posted a 3-13-1 record in the 2022 season, and general manager Nick Caserio decided that he wouldn't give Smith a second year in the job.

While Smith did not had the Texans playing at a high level, he certainly wasn't assigned the roster to do so. Houston is one of the worst teams in the league because the talent just isn't there right now; to expect more wins from such a bad team would be absurd, so it's difficult to understand why the coach wasn't given at least one more year.

One NFL personality who is not happy with the Texans' decision is former Cowboys wide receiver, Michael Irvin. During an appearance on ESPN's First Take, he was blunt in his criticism of Houston and Nick Caserio's decision, claiming that Smith was a victim of a much larger problem.

He (the GM) still has a job because this has been the plan. How do you hire two African Americans, leave 'em one year? And you know the mess that Houston is. This is what we've always talked about... We get the worst jobs, and we don't get the opportunity to even fix the worst jobs, because you'll get fired just like this.

Michael Irvin goes off on Houston Texans, says Lovie Smith was a victim of NFL's racism

There are now just two black head coaches remaining in the league: Todd Bowles from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Mike Tomlin from the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The former Texans' head coach was supposed to pull off an impossible rebuild. Irvin has a huge problem with the whole situation.

I don't know any great white coach that will take the job. Unless you give him some guarantees. You're gonna guarantee me for years, because to turn this place around, you see, but the African American coaches can't come in with that power, because Lovie wouldn't have gotten another job. Right.

This was his last chance to try to get back in the NFL. Yeah. So you have to take what's on the table to try to change. In all of this I'm firing a man because he won a football game?

Irvin closed his segment by saying that black coaches have been saying this for a long time but they aren't listened to. They're used as scapegoats for a much bigger problem inside the league.

As long as the mentality remains the same, black head coaches will remain victims of the league's racism. This has to change - and quickly.