The National Football League has gone about trying to increase inclusiveness for ethnic minorities in coaching and front office positions the least several years, putting in place various programs and incentives to encourage teams to hire coaches and front office personnel of minority status to promote greater diversity in the league.
One program that the league has put together is the Front Office Accelerator Program which had is inaugural meeting in May during the offseason. The program was designed to provide senior women and minority prospects with leadership development sessions with football operations experts and facilitators, as well as time spent networking directly with club owners. The effort is designed to continue building a diverse hiring pipeline for future head coach and general manager positions throughout the NFL.
The NFL plans to hold another Front Office Accelerator meeting this week in Dallas, and the Pittsburgh Steelers will have one of their newly-hired front office executives in attendance for this round of meetings as NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero tweeted out a list of league participants including Steelers Director of Pro Scouting Sheldon White.
Sheldon White was hired by GM Omar Khan shortly after taking on his new role with the team bringing him in after serving as a scout for the Washington Commanders last season. White started his career in the NFL with the Lions as a scout from 1997-1999. He was then promoted to Director of Pro Personnel in 2000 after Kevin Colbert left to become the general manager of the Steelers. He held that job from 2000-2008 and was promoted to Vice President of Player Personnel in 2009. In 2015 he was the Lions’ interim general manager for part of the season. From 2016-2020, Sheldon White was the Executive Director of Player Personnel and Recruiting at Michigan State before moving on to the Commanders last year.
White is an experienced talent evaluator that is held in a high regard by Khan and the front office and will look to make the most of this opportunity as a hopeful candidate for an elevated role in a front office in the future.
