Mark Madden: Changes to Rooney Rule should have trickle-up effect - TribLIVE

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The Rooney Rule that promotes minority hiring in the NFL is a noble idea, and very worthy of having the late Dan Rooney’s name attached.

But right now, it’s just not working.

Minorities fill four head coaching jobs in the NFL and two general manager slots. The Rooney Rule requires NFL teams to interview minority candidates for those positions. It was adopted in 2003 when African-American head coaches Tony Dungy (Tampa Bay) and Dennis Green (Minnesota) got fired despite successful tenures. Rooney personally added bite to the rule’s bark when he hired Mike Tomlin to coach the Steelers in 2007.

But the Rooney Rule has mostly led to token interviews where time gets wasted. There have been 16 head coaching vacancies in the past three years. Only two were filled by minorities. Washington hired Ron Rivera and Miami hired Brian Flores.

The NFL tabled a plan that would reward teams for hiring minority head coaches or GMs by bettering their third-round draft choice: Hire a minority head coach, your pick goes up six slots. Hire a minority GM, it climbs 10 places. Hire both, it improves 16 spots. A pick could conceivably jump to the middle of the second round.

That idea is insulting and condescending to minority candidates. It’s fixing a stacked deck by re-stacking it. Los Angeles Chargers coach Anthony Lynn, who is African-American, said, “You can do the wrong thing while trying to do the right thing. Out of desperation this is something that has been thrown out there.”

If that ever gets adopted, the Steelers should fire Tomlin and rehire him. How else would the Steelers be rewarded for employing a black head coach 13 seasons?

Instead, the Rooney Rule got adjusted thusly: Two minority candidates must be interviewed for a head coaching job; one minority interview for a GM spot; one minority interview for a coordinator’s position; one minority or female interview for a league or team executive position. Candidates must be external.

Teams can’t block assistant coaches from interviewing for coordinator’s jobs. Personnel people can’t be blocked from interviewing for an assistant GM spot.

The changes are good. It makes the Rooney Rule more exact. Including the positions of coordinator and assistant GM is smart. Those are stepping stones to better jobs. Hiring minorities for those spots will result in a trickle-up. As Steelers owner Art Rooney II said, “It’s a question of developing coaches at all levels.”

But there is no guarantee that these modifications won’t lead to anything besides more meaningless interviews.

It’s not difficult to play devil’s advocate when it comes to the Rooney Rule.

Seventy percent of the NFL’s players are African-American. Is that a concern? Should there be informal racial quotas for NFL rosters? If there aren’t enough minority coaches and GMs, consider there hasn’t been a white cornerback since 2003.

Those numbers aren’t irksome, because it’s easy to figure the most qualified get those jobs. But who’s to say that’s not true with coaches and GMs?

How do you make NFL owners hire minorities? It’s their money. They have the keys to the stadiums. They’re rich old white men. Good or bad, their proclivities will be reflected. Rich old white men aren’t noted for changing their ways.

Hiring minorities to coach and general manage might be one of those problems that doesn’t have a solution. Intentions are good. Maybe it can’t be fixed.

But it’s important to try.

The Rooney Rule has helped: In the first 12 seasons after the rule took effect, 14 minority head coaches got hired. Can these adjustments give the rule a jump start?

Next offseason is a litmus test. Let’s see if deserving men like Kansas City offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy and Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich get head-coaching opportunities. Bieniemy and Leftwich (an ex-Steeler) are the lone minorities among the NFL’s offensive coordinators.

Categories: Mark Madden Columns | Sports | Steelers/NFL