Rooney Rule Tokenism Heading in the Wrong Direction

Enough already

Last month at the NFL owner's meetings in California a topic came up: the Rooney Rule. For those that are not familiar with the rule, Curly R has weighed in with a definition and opinion on the efficacy of the rule, here is the summary:

Before the 2003 season the owners implemented a rule requiring all teams to interview one minority candidate whenever there was a head coaching vacancy, which meant basically any one of a bunch of black guys or Norm Chow. As the sport has continued to evolve and now black head coaches and black quarterbacks are not viewed as odd any longer, the rule has created a class of perpetual bridesmaids for interview fodder. Teams can still get the coach they have targeted simply by interviewing one of them. For more detail on the background and the real world problems with the rule, click back through the Curly R link above.

Now the league in its continuing attempt to look egalitarian while not really acting egalitarian is implementing the rule requiring minority candidate interviews for open general manager positions.

By my estimation the Rooney Rule has not been a success at the head coaching level and so what makes dear reader think it will be useful a step closer to ownership? Just more uncomfortable check the box interviews. Remember all those times in high school you thought your parents could not tell you had been out drinking and smoking? Well they totally could and in the same way a guy can tell in five seconds if he is a quota interview and it must be humiliating to know you are just sitting in the room because you are black and have no chance at the job to boot. Ask Denny Green about his interview with Jerral W. Jones for the Cowboys position in 2003.

The questions about this potential rule would be long and start with, how do you define that position? Would Vinny Cerrato qualify as the quote general manager unquote despite not having the title? We would be ok any way because Vinny is eye talyun (kidding!) How about Jerral W. Jones? He is the owner and general manager, what would he have to do? It seems to me that the definition of the general manager position is a lot less clear than the definition of the head coaching position. Some of these questions are addressed in the new rule, there will no doubt be others.

Let the teams have who they want, work to promote the best people, put in place development plans and do not get pissed when paranoid billionaires only hire the people they know.

End the rule.



Photo of Dan Rooney from here