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Our students in the DeVos Sports Business Management Graduate Program at the University of Central Florida were in the NFL league office two weeks ago. Leading off in an array of leaders from various departments to meet the students, commissioner Roger Goodell spent considerable time answering questions. He started by saying, I met Richard Lapchick approximately 30 years ago when we were discussing diversity.Three decades later we are still discussing it by issuing the National Football League Racial and Gender Report Cards (RGRC), as well as reports on all the other professional leagues, colleges and universities, and the media. We issued the 2016 NFL RGRC on Wednesday. I was the primary author of the report with co-authors Craig Malveaux, Erin Davison and Caryn Grant.In previous administrations with commissioners Pete Rozelle and Paul Tagliabue, progress was slow. Grades for racial and gender hiring practices stagnated while much attention was paid to the critical positions of head coach and general manager -- positions rare for African-Americans to hold. In fact, it was not until 1989 that the NFL had an African-American head coach in the modern era with the Raiders hiring of Art Shell. It was another 13 years in 2002 before the Ravens made Ozzie Newsome the first African-American GM.I was approached by civil rights attorney Cyrus Mehri who was working with Johnnie Cochran to present a study on how bad the NFL hiring record was. I told Cyrus that publishing another study would not have as much meaning as threatening legal action against the NFL. He agreed and a news release to that effect was sent out before a meeting with the league.On Oct. 23, 2002, Cyrus and I went to the NFL office to meet with senior leaders Jeff Pash, the NFLs in-house counsel, and executive vice president Harold Henderson, the highest-ranking minority executive in the league and someone I considered a friend. Commissioner Tagliabue did not attend. At the time of the meeting, there were only two African-American head coaches: Tony Dungy in Indianapolis and his former assistant, Herman Edwards, with the New York Jets.It was, as we would have guessed, a chilly reception but seemed somewhat productive. The lawsuit was taken off the table to see what the NFL would do. The meeting received significant media coverage. The Rooney Rule, which required a diverse pool of candidates for head coaching jobs, was adopted a few months after the meeting. It was inspired by Steelers owner Dan Rooney and quickly led to significant changes. Since then, Mike Tomlin helped lead the Pittsburgh Steelers to Super Bowl XLV in 2011, their second Super Bowl appearance in his tenure. In doing so, he became the first African-American head coach to lead a team to two Super Bowls. In 2010, Jim Caldwell helped lead the Indianapolis Colts to the Super Bowl in his first season as head coach. The Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears faced off in the 2007 Super Bowl with two African-Americans, Dungy and Lovie Smith, leading their respective teams. It was the first time this had happened in the NFL. Sometime later the NFL informed me that they would no longer cooperate with providing data for the Racial and Gender Report Card. Thus in subsequent years we could not include the league office because we did not have the data and focused only on the record of the teams. With no league office data, we did not have enough information to issue a grade for gender. I had no communication with the NFL in spite of several attempts to reopen lines of communication. In the meantime, attorney Mehri worked with the NFL to make progress.I will always remember taking a call from commissioner Goodell shortly after he took office. He said he wanted to discuss with me, as he was doing with others, his view on forming a consistent and rigorous policy on player behavior. I was glad that the line seemed open and asked for a meeting in his office, which followed soon thereafter. We discussed diversity at length. He enthusiastically told me that the NFL just hired a Senior Vice President named Robert Gulliver who would head up human resources and focus on diversity. In addition, the NFL resumed cooperation with the Racial and Gender Report Card.When Gulliver took over, the grades were still poor. But gradually the grade for racial hiring practices increased to the point where they have now received seven consecutive grades in the A range for racial hiring practices.Historically, the grades for gender hiring lagged behind to the point where the NFL even got a D-plus in this category in 2004, which was the last grade for gender after the NFL stopped providing league data. The grade resumed in 2009 when cooperation resumed. Starting in 2009 until 2015 it received a series of Cs with grades between 69 and 74 points out of 100.After the Ray Rice story broke in 2014, the NFL came under great scrutiny for policies on gender violence perpetrated by players. That created a spotlight on the low number of senior women working in the league office and on teams. I believed that if there were senior women on board to advise the commissioner, then the story might have taken the NFL on a different and more proactive path on the issue of gender violence.In the Report Card issued the year before the Rice story, the NFL had 69 points for gender. Redoubling their efforts and hiring women at senior leadership positions in the NFL and, to some degree on teams, the NFL jumped a stunning six points to 75 in 2015. In the newly released 2016 Report, it increased to 76 points for another C-plus on gender hiring practices.In the league office, the number of women and people of color at or above the vice president level continued to increase. In 2014, there were 14 people of color at or above the VP level. In 2015, there were 21 and in 2016, that number jumped to 24 people of color. Similarly, the number of women at or above the VP level increased from 31 to 35 in 2016.Just as the commissioner pointed out the hiring of Gulliver several years ago, he told me and the students that Cathy Lanier was named the NFLs new Senior Vice President of Security. Lanier had served as the Chief of Police for the Metropolitan Police Department for the District of Columbia for 10 years.While C-plus is not great, it does represent progress. The A grade for race is an overall look at all positions across the league office and the teams where progress is strong and is modeled by the league office and the commissioner. There are areas of concern in the NFL with only six head coaches of color. That leaves it two below the NFLs all-time high of eight. Only two of the 14 most recent openings have been filled by a person of color. Twenty-one of the 22 first-time hires between 2012-2016 were white. According to an ESPN story, 94 percent of head coaches hired over the past 20 years (133 of 141) had been NFL coordinators, pro head coaches (including interim) or college head coaches previously. Unfortunately for aspiring coaches of color, those jobs are overwhelmingly held by whites. There is no Rooney Rule for coordinators or college coaches. Since 2007, I have been urging the adoption of an Eddie Robinson Rule named after the iconic Grambling coach and patterned after the Rooney Rule. We also need a Rooney Rule for coordinators.In the new NFL RGRC, the percentage of assistant coaches of color had a very sharp drop from 37.9 percent in 2015 to 31.9 percent in the 2016 season. The number of GMs of color dropped from seven in 2015 to five in 2016. Those figures demand serious attention and the teams need to follow the modeling of the NFL league office.As commissioner Goodell told the DeVos students, Richard and I have disagreed on things. From the discussion about race in the 1980s when few were talking about it, to the progress in his 10 years as commissioner, it is clear that his interest in diversity and inclusion has led to significant progress in this area. While he is often criticized for other things -- as he said we disagree on things -- on these issues commissioner Goodell deserves the credit that I am suggesting here.Richard E. Lapchick is the Chair of the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program in the College of Business Administration at the University of Central Florida. Lapchick also directs UCFs Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, is the author of 16 books and the annual Racial and Gender Report Card, and is the President of the National Consortium for Academics and Sport. He has been a regular commentator for ESPN.com on issues of diversity in sport. Follow him on Twitter @richardlapchick and on Facebook at facebook.com/richard.lapchick.Ecco Shoes NZ Sale . 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Hey Kerry, big fan of yours, just finished reading your book. I think that we all saw the Canucks/Flames line brawl just after puck drop. It was obvious that something was about to happen, even to the referees because the fourth lines were on to start.CALGARY -- Dave Dickenson feels hes ready to be a head coach in the CFL, but that doesnt mean hes in a rush to become one. Touted as a coaching prospect when the star quarterback retired in 2009, the 40-year-old is in his third season as offensive co-ordinator and his fifth year on the coaching staff of the Calgary Stampeders. There are several reasons Dickenson is comfortable in a subordinate coaching role. He believes theres more he can learn about running an offence in the CFL and theres more to absorb from the vast experience of head coach and general manager John Hufnagel. The Stampeders retained the same coaching staff and most of the starters from the team that reached the Grey Cup final in 2012, so Dickenson can continue to have a key role in what could be a successful team again. Hes also not ready to uproot his family from a city they love to advance his career. That said, Dickenson doesnt doubt his abilities to command an entire football team on the field. "Personally, I think Im ready," Dickenson said Thursday at McMahon Stadium. "Im not worried about it, but I think Im ready if it comes about. "Im not in a hurry to head coach. I like what weve got. Im not as goal-oriented as a coach as I was as a player. I want to be with a staff, with an organization, with players who make my job fun and who feel like we can win." The Stampeders host the B.C. Lions on Friday in a CFL pre-season game. A Grey Cup winner with both the Stampeders (1998) and the Lions (2004, 2006), Dickenson still holds the CFL record for the highest pass completion percentage in a regular season (73.98 per cent). He was named the CFLs most outstanding player in 2000 while a Stampeder and was also the most valuable player of the 2006 Grey Cup. The business of sport, player or coach, is about achieving the next level and its championship in order to gain the next level and that championship. So it seems counterintuitive that Dickenson, whose personal goal as a player was to be an NFL starter, isnt angling his way to a headliner job as quickly as he can. "Lots of thing that are important to other people, arent important to me," Dickenson explained. "Money and prestige arent something I care about. "Ive got enough to live well. I want more enjoyment, a family type of atmosphere and I want success. I can get all three and then some here. Thats why I like it. "Definitely as a player, I wanted to go to a certain level. Here, head coach is the top level, but I feel it more revolves around winning as a team." After living the nomadic life of a professional football player for 13 years, Dickenson says his wife Tammy has the final say in any prospective move. His two children are in elementary school. "When I played, she said well go where you need to go, Dickenson said. "I think its fair to change that up." After Dickenson interviewed for head coaching jobs with Hamilton and Saskatchewan in 2011, he and the Stampeders agreed to a two-year contract extension.dddddddddddd Dickenson says he told Hufnagel then he would not look for another job during those two years. That commitment ends after 2013. There will be off-season openings on the football coaching carousel and the Ottawa Redblacks will join the CFL next year. Dickenson shrugs and says hes looking at the team in front of him and not at the horizon. "I will say its not like anyone has offered me a job as a head coach," he said. He then joked "Ive interviewed and obviously not very well." "Ive also been pretty honest with those guys in that I really do like being in Calgary," Dickenson continued. "It would take a great situation for me to look elsewhere." When the Lions released him in 2007, the University of Montana star returned to Calgary. Post-concussions symptoms forced Dickenson to announce his retirement in February, 2009. Hufnagel wasted no time incorporating Dickenson into his staff. Dickenson coached Calgarys running backs that season and was named quarterbacks coach for 2010. George Cortezs departure prior to the 2010 season left Hufnagel without an offensive co-ordinator. Dickenson was handed play-calling duties on game day, but not the title. "I had a lot of confidence in Dave being able to handle the offensive co-ordinator position, but I didnt want to put that weight on his shoulders," Hufnagel recalled. "I more or less just met with him every day and the staff, but I knew he was going to be an excellent play-caller and he grew from there." Calgarys offence led the CFL in points, offensive yards, first downs and rushing yards in 2010. Quarterback Henry Burris was named the CFLs outstanding player. Dickenson was officially named offensive co-ordinator in 2011 when the Stampeders tied for second in points and were second in first downs, net yards offence and net yards rushing. Calgary ranked first in touchdowns and rushing touchdowns and second in several other offensive categories in 2012. Dickenson has evolved from installing Calgarys offence and running it to countering what the opposing teams defensive co-ordinator is throwing at him. "Its getting a better feel for how defensive coaches call a defence against myself as the offensive co-ordinator and play-caller and try to have some answers for that," he explained. Dickenson is also arming himself with the skills hed need as a head coach should that day arrive. "I watch Huf pretty closely on how he organizes things in the day, when hes hard on guys, when he backs off on guys," Dickenson said. "Ive been very fortunate to work with a head coach who has basically done everything. Hes kind of a path Id kind of like to try to follow, maybe not the U.S. route as much, but a guy who is certainly a good mentor for me." ' ' '