A year ago, Ran Carthon, the-then director of player personnel for the San Francisco 49ers, participated in a new NFL program intended to accelerate the rise of qualified minority employees in coaching and front-office management.
The program put candidates in the same room — many for the first time — with the powerful people who run pro sports’ most profitable league. Carthon emerged as the most successful member of the program’s inaugural class, having been hired in January as general manager of the Tennessee Titans after meeting principal owner Amy Adams Strunk during an NFL meeting in Atlanta.
This week at a league meeting in Minneapolis, other aspiring NFL coaches will strive to join Carthon in making a major career jump following their face time with the people who can make it happen. And while getting into the room helps a whole lot, Carthon said, that’s only when the most important work begins.
“Generally, yeah, I feel good about it [the accelerator program], but what I’ve said is that it takes intentionality from not only the participants but from clubs and ownership as well,” Carthon said. “If you go into it without a plan, then you’re just there. You just there winging it. And that’s probably not going to work. You have to take the right approach. I went into it with a plan. I targeted certain owners and [team] presidents.
“This year, I’ve talked with a couple guys who are participating in it from the coaching side, and I just told ’em, ‘Have a plan.’ If you’re trying to talk to all the owners in such a short period of time, you get into a situation where it becomes like speed dating. With that said, you have to have owners who come to really participate. It can’t just be checking a box. They have to be intentional in wanting to get to know these candidates.”
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A common refrain among many Black NFL employees who have interviewed for top-tier positions in football operations is that they rarely — if ever — interact with decision-makers before the processes begin, whereas team owners often are much more familiar with their white counterparts’ professional and personal backgrounds. The imbalance, NFL officials acknowledge, is yet another impediment to the upward mobility of minority employees in a league that continues to struggle in its stated attempt to have a truly inclusive workplace from the front office to the field.
After playing in the league briefly as a running back, Carthon began his second NFL career as a pro scout with the Atlanta Falcons. Eventually, Carthon moved on from Atlanta while also moving up, becoming the director of pro personnel of the St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams. He joined San Francisco in 2017 as its director of pro personnel.
Carthon grew up in the league. Maurice Carthon, Ran’s father, had an eight-year NFL career as a running back with the New York Giants and Indianapolis Colts. The elder Carthon also held coaching positions with many teams in the league.
During Carthon’s time with the 49ers, they have played in one Super Bowl and three NFC Championship games, including the last two.
In the NFL, success resonates the loudest.
“I’m not in that room [among the candidates for general manager positions] if I’m not a part of a successful 49ers organization. It is what it is,” Carthon said. “We all know that in this league, when jobs come open, people want to pull from successful organizations. That’s where everything starts.
“Doing the work, continuing to strive each day to make your team a winning team and a successful franchise … you build on that. And from there, that’s where the real opportunities come from. Then, when you get to the accelerator program, that’s your chance to show who you are as a person.”
Each of the NFL’s 32 clubs choose participants for the program, which is the focus of this week’s league meeting. Participants attend sessions on a variety of subjects tailored to help them continue to grow in their current jobs, with an eye toward preparing them to be at their strongest when, hopefully, they enter the hiring pipeline in pursuit of promotions.
There are talented minority candidates throughout the pipeline, Carthon said, including for the NFL’s highest positions.
“I can rattle off a bunch of names of people who just need the opportunity. If given the opportunities, they could lead franchises and lead them well in all facets. Whether we’re talking about the coaching side, the front office side, or the business side, it’s just that people need exposure to the decision-makers to show that they’re capable.”
— Ran Carthon, Tennessee Titans general manager
“You’re talking about people who are qualified for these big, high-level positions that just haven’t been given the opportunity,” Carthon said. “When you hear people say, ‘We need to strengthen the pipeline in some areas,’ yeah, we need to do those things. But to me, that sometimes insinuates that there aren’t qualified people at the top, which is what I take issue with.
“I know there are. I can rattle off a bunch of names of people who just need the opportunity. If given the opportunities, they could lead franchises and lead them well in all facets. Whether we’re talking about the coaching side, the front office side, or the business side, it’s just that people need exposure to the decision-makers to show that they’re capable.”
The accelerator program now helps many get through the door. But closing the deal on the other side of it is still a challenge.
