Program produces fourth head coach

Eighty-three minorities are taking part in this summer’s NFL Minority Coaching Fellowship Program, the NFL announced today.

Also this year, the Minority Coaching Program produced its fourth graduate to be named an NFL head coach. The graduate is rookie Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, who joins Herm Edwards of the Kansas City Chiefs, Marvin Lewis of the Bengals and Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears as head coaches who were once in the program.

Tomlin, who is only the Steelers’ third head coach in the past 38 years, interned with the Cleveland Browns in summer of 2000 when he was the defensive backs coach of the University of Cincinnati.

Tomlin said the fellowship prepared him for his new job.

"The coaching fellowship gave me an opportunity to learn what I needed to do if I wanted to coach in the NFL," he said. "As a head coach, I plan to utilize the fellowship to the fullest to give others the same opportunities that were afforded to me."

The fellowship provides training-camp coaching positions for minority coaches at NFL clubs. More than 1,200 minority coaches have participated in the program. It was a brainchild of the late 49ers coach Bill Walsh.

The Bengals have had three participants this year: Ron Dugans, Georgia Southern and a former NFL wide receiver drafted in 2000 by the Bengals; Carl Powell, a former Redskins and Bengals defensive lineman; and Henry Stanford, Elmhurst College.

Two Bengals coaches, in addition to Lewis, were program participants, linebackers coach Ricky Hunley and defensive line coach Jay Hayes.