Finally, someone has spoken up about the farce that the Rooney Rule, intended to increase top-level NFL hires of black candidates, has become.
It took not a single black hire among eight head-coaching openings and seven general manger positions after the regular season for it to sink in. Three black former NFL coaches say the league needs to rethink its Rooney Rule for promoting minority hiring after 15 top vacancies were all filled by white candidates since the regular season ended a month ago.
“I know the concept is good and something we need to do,” said Tony Dungy, who was with the Indianapolis Colts during the 2006 season when he became the first black coach to win a Super Bowl. “Obviously, it’s not working the way it should,” he told the Associated Press.
The Rooney Rule, implemented in 2003, was named for Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Dan Rooney, who steadfastly pushed the league to require every team to interview at least one minority candidate every time there is a coaching or general manager opening.
Before the rule went into effect, the NFL had only six minority coaches in more than 80 years. Since it has been in place, 12 have been hired.
But none were hired this year to replace the two black coaches who were fired — Romeo Crennel in Kansas City and Lovie Smith in Chicago — and the one fired black GM — Rod Graves in Arizona.
Herm Edwards, former coach of the New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs and now an ESPN analyst, has called for not only revising the rule but perhaps even changing its name.
“When you use the Rooney Rule and not correctly, you put a little bit of a bad mark on Mr. Rooney’s name, and that is not good,” Edwards said Wednesday. “If it keeps going this way, we might need to take his name off the rule. It is not being used in the right manner that Mr. Rooney meant it to be.”
Robert Gulliver, the NFL’s executive vice president of human resources, said that the hiring results were “disappointing” and that he expects to make revisions in the rule.
The Fritz Pollard Alliance, a group of minority coaches and front-office, scouting and game-day NFL officials, wants the rule expanded to apply to coordinators, assistant head coaches and club presidents.
Unlike Dungy and Edwards, Jim Caldwell is still coaching, albeit as an assistant. Not only that, his team, the Baltimore Ravens, will play the San Francisco 49ers in Sunday’s Super Bowl. But he wasn’t even invited to interview for one of the eight vacant coaching jobs, though having a team in the playoffs can be a hindrance to such opportunities.
Fired as the Colts’ coach after the 2011 season, Caldwell joined the Ravens as quarterbacks coach. When coach John Harbaugh fired offensive coordinator Cam Cameron in December, Caldwell was promoted. With his guidance, Baltimore’s offense responded.
Caldwell is no stranger to the Super Bowl, having led the Colts there three years ago after replacing the retired Dungy. It was only after Peyton Manning was sidelined for the 2011 season that Caldwell was fired.
“It has been a great rule and it has worked in the past,” he said. “Just like anything else, you have to, after a certain period of time, revisit it and take a look and see if it needs a little tweaking. I think it does in this particular case.”
Caldwell added: “That’s one of the reasons that the Rooney Rule was put in place, because you’re trying to avoid those situations, if possible. We’re at that stage where guys like Lovie Smith, who didn’t get an opportunity, who had won and been very successful previously … obviously, there’s some concern there, and that’s why I think the rule is going to be revisited.”
Dungy said he believes the entire system is broken. He cited 21 coaching jobs changing in a three-year span, which he said indicates owners are making the wrong hires regardless of race.
Edwards said he wonders whether minority candidates get interviewed only to satisfy the rule, even though they have no chance of getting the job. He and Dungy noted that the last black head coach hiring — other than coaches promoted from within, such as Leslie Frazier, Raheem Morris, Mike Singletary, Hue Jackson and Crennel — was Mike Tomlin by Pittsburgh in 2007.
There are four minority coaches: Tomlin, Frazier in Minnesota, Marvin Lewis in Cincinnati and Ron Rivera in Carolina. Minority general managers include Baltimore’s Ozzie Newsome, Detroit’s Martin Mayhew, Houston’s Rick Smith, the New York Giants’ Jerry Reese and Oakland’s Reggie McKenzie.
“I am not saying you have to hire a minority candidate. No one is saying that,” Edwards said to AP. “I am saying you can’t be blinded. It can’t be, ‘Who is the guy to interview to get this out of the way?’ ”
“The problem I have is you don’t really abide by the Rooney Rule the correct way,” he said.
