Rooney Rule- UC Viewers Introspection

PHOTO by WTOP

At the end of the 2019 NFL season there were (5) head coaching vacancies. Of those (5), there is only (1) more vacancy as of January 11, 2019. The breakdown, of their nationalities: (3) white men and the 4th by the Carolina Panthers former head coach Ron Rivera, of Hispanic descent but is basically a white-latino. In my opinion, the NFL has the turnover rate of a high-volume call center, I did not research this for accuracy but trust me. Every year a coach will lose his job due to unsatisfactory performance. In 2018, (5) black head coaches were amongst the (8) head coaches who were relieved of their duties, with Steve Wilks getting only (1) year to coach the Arizona Cardinals. To be fair, Rob Chudzinski only had (1) year as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns, but the Browns are not a good organization largely considered a factory of sadness. As of today, there are only (4) head coaches who are minorities: Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Anthony Lynn of the Los Angeles Chargers, Brian Flores of the Miami Dolphins, and Ron Rivera who most recently attained a head coaching position for the Washington Redskins after being dismissed by the Carolina Panthers.

Becoming an NFL head coach is difficult I imagine. The amount of knowledge, preparation and frankly luck that goes into getting the head job of an NFL organization in itself is an accomplishment. It’s hard to become a coach in the NFL much less become the head coach of an NFL team. In the 100-year history of the NFL there have been (25) head coaches who were minority, not including those who were interim head coaches (total of (4) black coaches who fell into this category). Fritz Pollard, went on to become the 1st black head coach and player of the Hammond Pros. In 1925, he and the other black players were put out of the league for blatant racism, as during this time white players dominated the league. After Pollard, the league would not have another minority head coach until 55 years later, when Tom Flores was hired to be the coach of the part time Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders in 1979. It would be a total of 64 years before there was another black head coach in the league, 1989, when Art Shell was named the head coach of the Los Angeles Raiders. Seems like Al Davis, should have been the name bearer of the Rooney Rule instead of Dan Rooney lol. Basically, if you weren’t white you weren’t going to be a head coach in the NFL. If you so happened to become a head coach in the NFL, as a minority, you better keep winning because as soon as you under perform you will more than likely be fired.

The Rooney Rule is an NFL policy that specifies NFL teams MUST interview at least ONE minority candidate when conducting, head coach and key front office personnel (GM, asst. GM, etc.) searches. The “rule” was introduced to the league in 2003, by former Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who was head of the diversity committee at the time. Wikipedia states, “The Rooney Rule was created as a reaction to the 2002 firings of head coaches: Tony Dungy of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Dennis Green of the Minnesota Vikings. At a time when Dungy had a winning record and Green had his 1st losing season in 10 years.” In reality, the rule was created because the NFL was going to be sued by lawyers Cyrus Mehri and Johnnie Cochran for their discriminatory hiring practices, specifically in regards to black coaches. Prior to the existence of the rule, there had been 7 minority coaches in the NFL and I don’t even want to imagine how few front office personnel. After the rule was instated, there have been 18 minority head coaches in the NFL. On the surface, it seems the Rooney Rule has been a good addition for the NFL and black coaches in particular to get opportunities to lead NFL teams. “The Undefeated” website has a breakdown of the black coaches and statistical metrics comparing them to their white counterparts. What is interesting to me, is the loopholes in the rule and how year after year we generally assume that when certain coaches are interviewed for head coaching positions it’s only to satisfy the Rooney Rule. What’s also interesting is that black coaches typically aren’t given the same amount of time to “right the ship” as their white counterparts. What is the point of hiring a guy that’s going to be on a short leash? The types of job that these black coaches are getting are also terrible for the most part, with the exception of Mike Tomlin, who was hired into a pretty good situation in Pittsburgh. Generally, a coach is taking over a terrible team that needs a complete overhaul in several major areas inclusive of the culture.

One argument I’ve seen is that the number of black coaches in the league is in line with the percentage of the black population in the United States. This would make sense if everyone in the US was able to be an NFL head coach and despite what you may think of your abilities and how moronic you think your favorite team’s coach is, I assure you, you cannot be a head coach in the NFL. Another argument I’ve seen is that the coaches that are hired don’t win enough. While this may be true in some cases, it is hard to win when the team you are taking over has been terrible for years if not decades. I think it can be argued that the Rooney Rule is highly ineffective for coaching, front office staff, never mind actual ownership. I understand the intent of the rule was to increase the ability for minorities to have equal opportunities for jobs within franchise organization, but it has become is a yearly discussion as to why it’s not working. The simple answer is, decision makers have always and will always look to hire people who remind them of themselves and typically look like them.

Author: Jamaal Cowan