Drew Brees

Just ahead of its matchup against LSU in the 2023 Cheez-It Citrus Bowl, Brees was named Interim Assistant Coach of the 8-5 Purdue Boilermakers football team ...

In addition to benefitting from their expertise about the sport, the star power that these retired athletes of color would bring is likely to excite prospective student-athletes who are being recruited to the institution – similar to the “There was a transition period from the Big 10 championship game to preparing for this bowl game – our head coach leaves, takes a lot of his staff – and immediately I thought, look we’ve got a bowl game to play, we have a bowl game to go win, and these guys deserve the best opportunity and the best experience there.” Brees said this compelled him to call the University to offer his assistance. More institutions should extend the ‘come check us out for a little while’ invitation to former college and professional sports stars like Brees. Black men and two Black women held 34% of the other football assistant coaching positions at NCAA member institutions last year. Just ahead of its matchup against LSU in the 2023 Cheez-It Citrus Bowl, Brees was named Interim Assistant Coach of the 8-5 Purdue Boilermakers football team. More colleges and universities should pursue gifted former athletes of color for them. It's a shame that Black men comprise such significant shares of college football players, yet are so underrepresented among coaches at all levels. Racial diversity on the team’s coaching staff was exponentially lower. Former standout players like Brees ought to be pursued for collegiate coaching careers. [USC Race and Equity Center research report](https://race.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Pub-2-Harper-Sports-Report.pdf) on Black student-athletes and racial inequities in college sports, I furnished statistics showing that Black men comprised 55% of football teams across the 65 Power Five universities. It does, however, introduce a potentially replicable response to one of college football’s most vexing diversity problems. After graduating from Purdue University in 2001, Drew Brees spent two decades in the NFL.