The NFL has always had a bit of a problem with minority coaches and general managers. It’s not that they refuse to have them or anything, but there really aren’t many holding jobs at the moment.

At the moment, there are only two black general managers in the NFL, and just four minority head coaches.

Yes, there are not that many of those jobs available. There are 32 teams, meaning there are 64 total jobs between head coaches and GMs. Still, those numbers (two GMs and four head coaches) are matching 17-year low.

According to Jim Trotter of NFL.com, owners are going to vote on a resolution to incentivize hiring minorities in those two positions.

The NFL has had the “Rooney Rule” in place since 2003. That rule is pretty simple. Teams are required to interview a minority for head coaching jobs, as well as senior football operations positions.

However, there are some clear problems with that rule. It’s hard to regulate. And a lot of the times, teams will just interview someone in the organization without any real thought on hiring him.

That’s not saying anything against the organizations either. Quite often, teams already know who they want. So even talking to anyone else just seems arbitrary.

This is different though. It sounds like they will actually be trying to incentivize the hirings. That will definitely bring more opportunities to minorities when it comes to coaching and senior football operations jobs.

And it’s hard to argue that this isn’t needed either. Just six out of 64? That’s clearly a pretty big issue.

It looks like the NFL is trying to be proactive about this problem, so at least that’s a step in the right direction.