OL coach Chung says interviewer called him 'not the right minority'
Offensive line coach Eugene Chung had a disheartening experience when interviewing for an NFL job this offseason.
"It was said to me, 'Well, you're really not a minority,'" Chung told Nicole Yang of the Boston Globe on Tuesday.
Chung is of Korean descent. He froze upon hearing the interviewer's comment.
"I was like, 'Wait a minute. The last time I checked, when I looked in the mirror and brushed my teeth, I was a minority,'" he said. "So, I was like, 'What do you mean I'm not a minority?'"
Chung says he was then told, "'You are not the right minority we're looking for.'"
The Fritz Pollard Alliance, a foundation that champions diversity within the NFL, later called for an investigation into Chung's claims in a statement Monday.
"Alleged comments made to Eugene Chung by an NFL team during a recent interview should be investigated by the NFL," executive director Rod Graves said, per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. "If the comments regarding his status as a Korean American are true, it is further evidence that despite good-faith changes to diversity-related policies, the NFL's actual hiring practices are still riddled with discrimination."
Chung spent five years as an offensive lineman for the New England Patriots, Indianapolis Colts, and Jacksonville Jaguars during the 1990s. He joined the Philadelphia Eagles as an assistant offensive line coach in 2010, followed Andy Reid to the Kansas City Chiefs in 2013, and returned to the Eagles in 2016, eventually winning a Super Bowl in 2017.
Chung last coached with the Eagles in 2019 and hopes to someday become the NFL's first Asian American head coach. He was the first Asian American drafted in the first round when the Patriots selected him 13th overall in 1992.
But Chung's experience this offseason left him heartbroken.
"It was absolutely mind-blowing to me that in 2021, something like that is actually a narrative," Chung said of being called "not the right minority."
The NFL recently implemented a rule rewarding teams with third-round picks for developing minority coaches or front-office execs who land with other teams. The league also updated the Rooney Rule to require clubs to interview at least two minority candidates for head coaching jobs and one minority candidate for a coordinator position.
However, the league has been criticized for a lack of diverse hiring this year.
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