Is the Rooney Rule In The NFL Still Necessary?

No. They need to expand it to include executive positions

Those old money NFL owners were just like the South, they had to be FORCED to stop discriminating. Hell, if it were not for Brown v Board of Education, the South would still have "seperate but equal". Its 2011 and some high schools in the south still have seperate high school proms.

Racism in the NFL still exists. How many black GMs are there?

Is it still in place? There have been a lot of recent hires and I have not heard of black candidates prior to the hiring. When the rule was initially implemented it was in the news and teams were fined or forced to interview black candidates. It's possible that I just haven't been paying close enough attention.

Steeler's Fan wrote:

Is it still in place? There have been a lot of recent hires and I have not heard of black candidates prior to the hiring. When the rule was initially implemented it was in the news and teams were fined or forced to interview black candidates. It's possible that I just haven't been paying close enough attention.

They have had "token" interviews. They knew who they were going to hire, but they brought someone black in to satisfy the requirement. If they dont interview a black candidate, I think the fine is only $225,000. Which is bullshit, thats pennies to a billionaire.

Thanks. I agree with you. I didn't even hear about the token interviews this time around.

Stupid rule. How would you feel as a black candidate knowing you're being interviewed ONLY to satisfy a requirement? Owners and GM's will be more willing to interview qualified minority candidates after seeing some of the success that a few have had (i.e Tomlin, Morris, Smith). I think the rule should be dropped. If a GM names an interim head coach during the season and wants to name him the head coach, he shouldn't have to go out and interview a minority candidate just to satisfy some silly rule.

I feel bad for the minority who has to sit there for a pointless interview while he knows he isn't being hired, but to just satisfy a stupid rule.

On the surface I agree for the reasons you mentioned.

However, if history has taught us anything, it is that if you allow old, fat, rich, white men in majority the power to rule as they wish, it will benefit only old, fat, rich, white men. The rule shouldn't have to be there due to guys like Tomlin, but it plants a seed that there are very qualified black men who should be considered. Without the rule, it is possible in many cases that the Tomlin's aren't even in the midset to get a look. The rule is more about changing a long-standing mindset than immediately helping a particular minority. Remember, it was not that long ago that a black QB wouldn't have been considered because they are "lack the mental skills" according to one owner. Pathetic!

I have mixed feelings about the Rooney Rule. On the one hand, something had to be done about the lack of black coaches. The racial composition of the coaches, in my opinion, should roughly mirror that of the players. I don't know the statistic but I would guess >50% of NFL players are black, and there are certainly not 16 black head coaches, even today. And there are nowhere near "enough" black executives, which I think is due in large part to there not being ANY black owners.

On the other hand, does interviewing a minority candidate mean you will actually hire one? My team, the Vikings, just hired Leslie Frazier permanently. Prior to this, Frazier had interviewed with a handful of teams over the last couple of years. I have to wonder if he was ever a legitimate candidate, or if he was simply interviewed to satisfy this rule. Ideally, there would be a rule requiring teams to seriously consider minority candidates, and I am not sure that requiring one interview accomplishes this effectively.

I really think we won't "solve" this problem--have a league where the Rooney Rule is not necessary because there is no discrimination in hiring coaches--until the NFL owners are more diverse. And this is difficult because the $800M-$1.1B cost of a team is more than a bit prohibitive.

brad childress wrote:

I have mixed feelings about the Rooney Rule. On the one hand, something had to be done about the lack of black coaches. The racial composition of the coaches, in my opinion, should roughly mirror that of the players. I don't know the statistic but I would guess >50% of NFL players are black, and there are certainly not 16 black head coaches, even today. And there are nowhere near "enough" black executives, which I think is due in large part to there not being ANY black owners.

Rather than having 16 black head coaches, wouldn't it make more sense if each team had >50% black coaches on their staff? Having 16 black head coaches doesn't do much for the other teams that are still compose of more than 50% black players but have zero black coaches on the staff.

They still have the token interviews.

Last year, Redskins owner Dan Snyder interviewed a black assistant coach for the head coach position to satisfy the rule.

But, at the time of the interview Jim Zorn was still the head coach with a few weeks left in the season.

At the conclusion of the season, Zorn was fired and Shanahan was hired the next day.

This "interview", while the position was not open, statisfied the Rooney Rule.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/319526-the-nfls-rooney-rule-snyder-tested-jokebook-approved

I think there needs to be a "Retread Rule". As in, if you have had a certain number of head coaching jobs and haven't won at any of them then you can't be a head coach any longer. One of the reasons the league doesn't have many great coaches is because they keep hiring the ones that have constantly proven that they suck.

brad childress wrote:

I have mixed feelings about the Rooney Rule. On the one hand, something had to be done about the lack of black coaches. The racial composition of the coaches, in my opinion, should roughly mirror that of the players. I don't know the statistic but I would guess >50% of NFL players are black, and there are certainly not 16 black head coaches, even today. And there are nowhere near "enough" black executives, which I think is due in large part to there not being ANY black owners.

I'm not sure I buy the logic that the racial composition of coaches should mirror that of the players, particularly since the racial composition of the players is so drastically higher than that of the general population. If former players were your only source for coaches, then you'd expect that, but there are a lot of coaches who weren't NFL players.

For example, I knew 2 brothers in college. One of them wasn't good enough to play on the college team. The other one went on to play in the NFL for more than 10 years. The one who wasn't good enough immediately went into coaching. He had more than a 10 year jump on his brother in the coaching profession. He's been a Division I head coach for 8 years. The NFL player has been an assistant coach since retiring from the NFL. In terms of a coaching future, I would say it was an advantage for the brother who didn't play in the NFL.

Furthermore, of the 4 coaches remaining, none of them played in the NFL. Mike Tomlin was a head coach in the NFL at an age where a lot of guys are still playing. So I guess my point is that if you consider the real pool of people who are interested in coaching as those that play high school and college football and really love it, the racial makeup is quite a bit different than if you only consider NFL players.

Steeler's Fan wrote:

On the surface I agree for the reasons you mentioned.

However, if history has taught us anything, it is that if you allow old, fat, rich, white men in majority the power to rule as they wish, it will benefit only old, fat, rich, white men...

because they are "lack the mental skills" according to one owner. Pathetic!

Are you saying that hiring black coaches doesn't help the old, fat, rich white owners? This would imply that they make inferior coaches.

I thought the idea of the rule was so that the old, fat, rich, white owners would see that it is to their advantage to consider all qualified candidates, and thus this rule helps the old, fat, rich, white own, which I'm guessing probably causes you a bit of turmoil.

Not sure about your last line.

I'm saying that they would be happy to have black players, drinking from their own drinking fountains of course, but no color in any management positions because "they" are threatened by anyone but replicas of themselves (old, white,.... As good, better, or whatever takes a back seat to lifetimes of interbreeding ignorance.

A few owners & GM's publically said that black players lacked the mental skills needed to be a successful NFL QB. This was early to late 80's. Pre-Jones Cowboy owner was one of them.

Steeler's Fan wrote:

A few owners & GM's publically said that black players lacked the mental skills needed to be a successful NFL QB. This was early to late 80's. Pre-Jones Cowboy owner was one of them.

I think you're recalling the Al Campanis interview on Nightline which did occur during the 80's. But he was a baseball GM, not football. I don't think you'll find anyone else prominent that said that publicly during the 80's.

You could be right. I am thinking it all came to a head when Doug Williams was getting playing time prior to his Super Bowl win. It's entirely possible that I am intertwining them.

Wasn't Doug Williams asked "How long have you been a black quarterback?"

Nat Turner wrote:

Those old money NFL owners were just like the South, they had to be FORCED to stop discriminating. Hell, if it were not for Brown v Board of Education, the South would still have "seperate but equal". Its 2011 and some high schools in the south still have seperate high school proms.

Racism in the NFL still exists. How many black GMs are there?

_________________________________

Why is it always about black?

Racism exists everywhere. Not just blacks. I get it all the time and I'm white. I teach. Black kids are always trying to claim racism. They call me "whity" and Craka".

why can't I claim something against them when they say that?

Can I use the "N" word? Nope. I never have. However, if I did, I'd be fired !!!

Many black kids parents use the "n" word. They also call me "cracka".

So, we have to give a man a position because he is black? What if there are 9 applicants and he is worse than all but one or two? Do we just say " Sorry folks, but the black guy gets the job."

Nat Turner wrote:

Racism in the NFL still exists. How many black GMs are there?

Such an obtuse statement. DO you really think it's racist not to have an equal racial mix for every profession? It's ridiculous to believe in this business that one would consciously hire somebody based on their colour. I'm sure the only colour NFL owners see is green.

There are 8 white people for every non white person in the waste industry. Is the wast industry racist?