Seriously, why even bother? For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, some time back the NFL instituted a rule that at least one minority candidate must be interviewed for a vacant head coach position. In reality, teams often have a candidate in mind, and if he happens to be caucasion, they have to pretend to be interested in at least one minority candidate. The news outlets refer to it in their stories as a team “satisfying the Rooney Rule.” Recent example.
It’s a joke. I’m all for fairness and equal opportunity, but when the minority candidate is clearly being brought in just to satisfy the rule, how does that help anyone? In this case, it was blatantly obvious, and widely reported that Seattle had their minds set on Pete Carroll for their next coach. So, when Leslie Frazier’s agent called him, how do you think the conversation went?
<speculation>
Agent: “Hey, Les, great news! The Seahawks called and want you to come in for the head coaching spot.”
Frazier: “Umm, I just read on ESPN.com that they really want Pete Carroll. And, you know, I’m black, so it’s a Rooney Rule thing. Do I have to go?”
No, it’s a good rule. While Carroll is certainly the favorite, and Frazier won’t be getting the job, getting an interview is an extremely important step in getting another head coaching job. The more chances you can make a good impression with GMs across the NFL, the greater chance you have of being hired. It’s a slow process getting more black coaches up the ranks, but this does help out. The NFL coaching pool is incestual enough - the more that can be done to forcibly infuse new blood into it, the better.
Bah. I don’t buy it. I buy it in principle, but not in practice. Frazier doesn’t gain any cred for that interview. All he gains is being the token interview. Like I said in my OP, I’m all for the idea of equality, and I do think it’s important to make sure everyone is considered, but when it’s blatantly being abused it serves no purpose. There are plenty of qualified minority candidates for head coaching jobs. It’s insulting to “pretend” to be interested in someone to fulfill a requirement.
That’s the case in this situation, where the Seahawks specifically went after the one person they wanted. But many times there’s an extensive search. In the past, the pool would be the same group of old white guys that every other search contained. I don’t have names or situations at hand, but I remember several discussions about this on ESPN, and they mentioned several coaches that got higher jobs in the NFL this way. Not just head coaching jobs - it opened doors across the organization. (Which makes sense, since there are more coordinators than head coaches.)
This. Ask Tony Dungy whether the Rooney Rule is working.
There was some speculation that the Steelers had no intention of hiring Mike Tomlin when they interviewed him for the Steelers’ job after Cowher’s semi-retirement - but he interviewed so well that Dan Rooney changed his mind.
If you want evidence of whether or not it works, cast your eyes over to the NCAA, where there are 120-something teams in Division 1 (or the FBS or whatever they call it now) and something like 10 minority head coaches (and only four at BCS schools).
By contrast, the NFL has six minority head coaches among 32 teams.
If there’s a problem, it’s that five out of the six are from the Dungy tree - Marvin Lewis isn’t. Leslie Frazier is the top minority candidate among current assistants, and he’s a Dungy guy too- he was the Colts defensive backfield coach for two seasons under Dungy.
An earlier report I read said that he refused to go to Seattle for the interview because he knew it was a sham, and only agreed to it after the Seahawks offered to interview him in Minnesota.
I agree about the Rooney rule - not bad conceptually, but ridiculous the way it’s currently practiced.
You’re hiring an NFL football coach, not a data entry clerk. There are very few candidates for each head coaching position. Teams should be able to hire who they want without having to go through the motion of interviewing a minority.
If the Oakland Raiders decide they want to hire Denny Green as their next coach, do they also need to interview Norm Chow?
Lewis is a fine example of the Rooney Rule doing just what it was intended to do. He had quite a few token interviews (no question that they happen), but he did take them seriously and he did make a great impression in the community of decisionmakers. That’s what got him the Bengals job, and look where they are today. That’s just what the system was set up to do.
The number of black head coaches (and black coordinators, too, the step before it) really is steadily increasing. The Rooney Rule cannot be hurting that trend.
Dungy assistants are a hot commodity in large part because the assistants of any coach who’s won over a long period are hot commodities. Dungy’s universal personal respect helps too, and he has seemed to be engaged in an affirmative action program, but what’s wrong with that? No owner is *required *to do anything but talk with a guy for a few hours.
Dungy does generally hire black assistants, but that’s partly because he prefers assistants who played football at the college level, or particularly at the pro level. That said, Rich McKay selected a number of Dungy’s assistants in Tampa.
Actually though, the Steelers had already interviewed Ron Rivera to fulfill the Rooney Rule requirements during that coaching search, Mike Tomlin was not interviewed because of the Rooney rule; he was interviewed based on merit, and hired based on merit. Art Rooney himself is quoted in New York News Day as saying Tomlin wasn’t hired because of the rule, and since he was at least the second minority head coaching candidate to interview for the spot, he didn’t even interview because of the rule.
Nepotism in coaching hires is bad enough even with the Rooney rule, what with all the assistants who are sons of Buddy Ryan, Marty Schottenheimer, et al who are gainfully employed as NFL coaches. I can figure out how Wade Phillips got hired once to be a head coach, let alone twice, other than being the son of Bum Phillips. The Rooney rule is a necessary evil to give other guys a chance.
This is an exceedingly bizarre comment when you consider that of the guys you mention, all of them are coaching in the playoffs today. Can it be nepotism if they are eminently qualified?
Well, qualified today or not, Dad still got them their first jobs, for the most part. There are many more qualified coaches who never get that shot because they couldn’t get sinecures like Offensive Quality Control Assistant.
Plus, for every Kyle Shanahan there’s a dozen Jay Grudens (though Jay admittedly coached the Orlando Predators to two Arena League titles when he wasn’t being paid to do nothing by the Buccaneers).
Looking around the league I’m going to have to disagree with the premise that there are a lot of guys who could be successful.
Please, name me one head coach in the league now who’s there due to nepotism or is a retread who isn’t deserving. Seems to me that all the coaching disasters in the NFL are new blood.
It is a popular and trendy thing to bash but it’s not based on any reality.
It stands to reason that rookie coaches are usually going to be the ones who don’t succeed - they’re usually the ones getting sent to Detroit, Cincinnati, Cleveland and so on.
Another thing about the Rooney Rule is that it gives minority candidates, whether qualified yet or not, an opportunity to hone their interview skills and see what the process is like.
In law school, Career Services did mock interviews all the time, to get people ready for the hell that was recruiting season.
Any process that gets a minority candidate a leg up, especially when he’s not part of the old-boy network and thus not on the familiar level with his interviewers that other members of the coaching carousel might be, is all right in my book.