Oddly enough, Mike Tomlin seems to be the first beneficiary of the Rooney Rule- and he was hired by Rooney!
For the few who might not know, Steelers owner Dan Rooney was the one who proposed the rule that every team with a head coaching vacancy HAD to interview an African-American. Up to now, that rule hadn’t directly helped anybody. Oh, it sent a signal to all teams that they had to make more of an effort to hire black coaches, and that was commendable… but the Rooney Rule itself never helped anyone, until this past weekend. If anything, the Rooney Rule just wasted a lot of black men’s time, forcing them to take part in intervews for jobs they had no chance of getting.
I mean, Marvin Lewis was hired because he built a championship defense in Baltimore, NOT because the Bengals were forced to give him an interview. Lovie Smith was hired because he’d greatly improved a previously porous Ram defense, NOT because the Rooney Rule required the Bears to give him an interview.
But in the case of the Steelers, it seems pretty clear that Mike Tomlin was NOT supposed to be one of the top contenders for the head coaching job. In THIS case, Russ Grimm was the frontrunner, and Tomlin was the token minority interviewee. But as it turned out, the token interviewee knocked the socks off the Steelers management.
So, the Rooney Rule worked, for once- possibly to the Rooneys’ benefit!
I don’t think Jones would mind paying the money, but I do think he’d mind paying the compensatory draft picks. The Steelers still have the rights to Cowher for another year.
Only the Steelers fans would introduce a thread about general off-season hires titled “Mike Tomlin named head coach of the Steelers”.
Not the Dolphins fans, Raiders fans, Cardinals fans, not even the Cowboys fans (and that’s a much more interesting story).
Anyone else notice the only team here that gets its own “Annual March to the Superbowl” thread?
The difference between how much regard Steelers fans have for their team, and how much regard the rest of the world has for that team could not be more vast.
Potentially dumb question, that I am asking out of curiosity, and not to be argumentative: Why would it be “disloyal” for Cowher to take a job somewhere else, if he were to get paid there what he thinks he’s worth? It sounded to me like Cowher left in part because he wanted more money, and the Rooneys didn’t want to pay it (to anyone), and everybody was OK with that. Is that not the case?
Unfortunately, the vast majority of the Steelers can only play football. Maybe you could recommend some tips on how they can get arrested for really stupid things like their Baltimore brethren, so then you could make some positive comments.
Agreed, or at least that’s what a football guy would find objectionable. Unfortunately though Jones only thinks he’s a football guy but in fact has a horrific track record of poor trades and drafts. He’d probably have to give three high rounders to get Cowher and he’s just dumb enough to do it.
This may be a really minor nitpick, but IIRC, the rule is that teams have to interview visible minority candidates, not African-American specifically. I haven’t read the rule, so I might be wrong, and in practice I don’t think it makes much difference anyway. But, I’m hopelessly pedantic.
Well, it would be “disloyal” because the Rooney family has been one of the most loyal ownerships in all of sports. Of course there are other shining lights in sports ownership, but given how sleazy (read: ready to do anything for more money) many ownership groups are today, the Rooneys should certainly be respected.
More to the point, the Rooney family (Dan, specifically) stuck by Cowher through some tough times (the Kordell Stewart era) when he would have been canned by nearly any other organization.
As far as Cohwer leaving because of money, as I understand it, it’s only half of the story. The real story is that Art Rooney II, the new-ish team president, isn’t half the man his dad or grandfather is (and was). Apparently Cowher thought he was being jerked around by Li’l Art, especially regarding the money. The Rooneys have always been tight with money, but they’ve always been up front about it. Apparently this isn’t the case in the new regime. All of the above comes from reading mounds of articles and far too many hours of sports radio. I cannot vouch for its veracity, but it sounds very plausible.
With the huge staffs that coaches have nowadays ,I think head coach is less important. The day to day coaching is done by assistants. Some teams water down the ability of coaches to pick draft choices too.
I am near Detroit and I think ownership is the trump card. Rooney plays to win. Jones plays to win. Whatever it takes.
OK, I see your point here. I had (conveniently) forgotten about the mess that was Kordell. (Lord sakes, what a mess!) Thanks – I think – for reminding me.
But who picks the assistants and passes on the draft requersts to the owners? Who checks to make sure that the ass’t coaches are sticking with the team’s gaols and are doing things right?
A head coach, especially using your premise, is just like the captain of a ship - maybe hands off every little (or even not-so-little) detail, but ultimately responsible for what happens b y the end of the season.
To be fair, there aren’t many people that are even half the man Rooney is.
They were laughing about this attitude on PTI yesterday. Yeah, he sure screwed Jerry Jones but good; Jerry missed his chance at Lane Kiffin! The reality is that there wasn’t a single top tier head coaching candidate on the market this year; the 16 day delay was basically moot.
For the Steeler fans, I’m not denigrating Tomlin, just pointing out that he wasn’t a top tier candidate. (As evidenced by the first sentence in the OP.)
I have another reason for predicting success for Tomlin: The Google ad at the bottom of the page is for ChristReturns.net. This can only mean good things, right?
I think it was Mad Mex, or Mex Mex, I can’t remember the exact name. It’s on the left, right before the Northway Mall, when you’re coming from Ross Park.
Heh, someone at the Science Center today jokingly suggested he get a discount because he’s from Tomlin’s hometown. Like I said, I predict that Tomlin will not have to pay for a single beer for the next six months, at least.
Oh, and might I add, that the Science Center is next door to Heinz Field? Which should be fun come football season.