the entire league right now there is just one black head coach. that s pittsburgh s mike tomlin. joining me now, pro football talk s mike florio, author of playmakers how the nfl really works and doesn t. and michael holly, host of brother from another on peacock. michael, nine head coach openings in the nfl this season, six filled, none are black coaches. it looks like the rooney rule isn t working so great. so when the nfl says it s worked to become more inclusive, what do the numbers tell us? the numbers tell a familiar story. nothing really has changed. the you look at it, what the nfl was before the rooney rule and what the nfl has been since the rooney rule is pretty similar. you think about this league didn t get its first black coach until 1989. we re not talking about deep into yesteryear with art shell with the raiders in 89.
lebron himself said the league didn t tell him he had to change colors. it was a request. he said i am just a player and i will do what they ask me to do. the reasons were they can t see his face of the they can t see him better than they could in the black one. you can sill see his eyes. his cheeks are covered. what do the uh pone nebts need to opponents need to see? if you look at the black mask. he looks more intimidating. that is a performance-enhancing drug. if i wore that i would be a much better host. i think the reasoning is behind it that it is menacing. there have been other players including recent times that had the same sort of mask. the league didn t say anything about it. but lebron is the top player in the league.
building behind me, the freedom tower here in miami, to talk about his policy toward cuba. and he used some more bombastic language than we heard from him before to kind gf toe-to-toe with newt gingrich on some of those policies. so i think that s just showing that he really has to get more visceral to go at it with newt gingrich. rod you chair the party, the democratic party there in florida. and you ve had to council many a candidate. willard tried to go after gingrich the other night, and it seem league didn t bump him up to where he wanted. what has to happen tomorrow night? what do you think will happen in their debate tomorrow night which is before the florida vote on next tuesday? what do you think newt is going to do? what do you think willard is going to do? well, right now, i think that romney has a problem in florida. and tomorrow night, i he would have to work to dispel that. and that is he really isn t