Expansion of the Rooney Rule in Store?
Bob Glauber writes from the NFL Owners’ Meetings that the league is pondering expanding the Rooney Rule.
Now the league is considering expanding the rule to include general manager candidates as well, according to commissioner Roger Goodell. The commish told the Associated Press earlier today that he and the owners discussed the rule’s expansion in the final session of their two-day meeting in Fort Lauderdale.
No vote was taken, but the owners seem to be in favor of it.
Said Dolphins owner Stephen Ross: “It’s a good idea. We certainly have it with the coaches and this would be expanding it to the general managers. From what I understand, we did follow that when we did hire Bill Parcells.”
Indeed they did, the Dolphins interviewed the Jets scouting head Joey Clinkscales. Although in theory I’m a fan of the expansion of the rule, in practice I’m concerned because I think that Clinkscales does a great job in scouting for the draft and for the team and I greedily want the organization to keep him.
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does someone of a different religous background considered to be a minority.
The new coach of tampa is muslim.
Our GM is jewish.
Is that a way teams can get an easy way out?
yet another way of combatting inequality by creating more inequality
Personally, I think it should be called the Token Rule rather than the Rooney Rule — for obvious reasons.
I guess it has two functions. It identifies qualified black coaches and administrators who should possibly be considered and since everyone will likely interview the top guys to comply, it gives these guys interview practice so that when the are honestly going to be considered, they are not interviewing for the first time.
But if anyone thinks…
harlan
I think its a joke. As a 27 year old black man i must wonder What makes it a priority of the league to interview minorities for positions we almost know for a fact they aren’t going to get. If they are qualified then they deserve an interview otherwise it is just as equally racist to interview a minority based on the color of his skin. At what point did it stop being a fight for inequality but rather a fight for superiority. Not to get racial but the topic is on the Rooney rule which I think is the most racist thing to come about in Football in recent years
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Goal should be penalize those who discriminate against ANYBODY, not just black people. To force something upon someone is proven to fail – see Affirmative Action. All it does it stigmatize those qualified as only being there because they are a token. Message to Mr. Goodell – not sure if you are aware, but there are other groups of people other than black people that have been discriminated against in the good old USA.
I get the point. It’s to let people get a foot in the door to get a feel for what they may be up against and also to give them a chance to showcase themselves.
I think the teams would already understand that it is in their best interest to interview then hire the most qualified candidate regardless of sex, race, religion, age but apparently this country isn’t PC enough.
Give me a break. At least they agree on it.
“If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all.” – Jacob Hornberger
Ethic minorities (specificly blacks) represent an overwhelming majorities in professional sports. Why? Two reasons:
Because sports unlike any other institution happens to be based entirely on merit and because blacks on average have a higher density of fast twitch muscle fibers. Fast twitch fibers are responsible for explosive movements, which are very important in most sports.
Simply put, all races excel at different things, no one race is superior, but at the same time we’re not entirely the same either. We talk about diversity, and “celebrating diversity” yet we are largely afraid to even recognize the things that make us diverse. We’re afraid.
Nobody would ever suggest trying to make sure that more whites are included in professional sports and that’s the way it should be.
I already know the argument to this, that the point isn’t to give more minorities the position, but to give them the oppourtunity to get the position if they’re selected as the best canidate for the job.
My counter to that though is that in this day in age I don’t see the best canidate for a coaching job being denied an interview simply because of their race. If that we’re going to happen then it would be the hiring team that’d be loosing out, the individual would almost certainly get picked up by the next team anyway.
The point I’m trying to get to is let the chips fall where they may, if the market decides that a certain ethic group makes for better coaches then we shouldn’t let it bother us.
Oh dear Lord Lafflin why on earth did you write that? Bassett, can we have that racist post removed forthwith?
Anyway, all the Rooney Rule has ever done was to get more interview experience for up-and-coming young black head coaching candidates.
Whether you all like it or not, historical inequities have made it statistically less likely that a young black coach in their mid-30’s or 40’s will have the same shot as a white coach in their 30’s and 40’s.
Its not because the NFL is racist against them NOW, but so many qualified (relatively) young black coaches had to face the same stigma that black quarterbacks face.
Let’s face it: if a black head coaching candidate is 50 years old right now, he was alive during the days of segregation, or was born right afterwards. Its not as if when the NATIONAL GUARD was sent in to desegregate schools by force, a magic button was pressed that ended racism or discrimination.
The 1980’s and 1990’s were, obviously, only 2 and 3 decades after de-segregation, just when these black coaching candidates would normally have been developing as young coaches. I’m guessing we can all agree that there was a competitive disadvantage for them in a society that was a mere 2 decades past a very ugly chapter in our nation’s history? Or once again, you can go with the “magic button” theory that the South being FORCED to desegregate ended SEVERE discrimination and racism and made everything an equal playing field.
Another startling example of how close we are in our nation’s history to this sort of horror: Loving vs. Virgina was decided in 1967. That’s 42 years ago my friends. While many of us were alive, and certainly our parents.
So while the league may be fair right now, quite clearly there is an interest in having the GM’s, head coaches and so forth be representative of society as a whole, kind of like the Supreme Court. Forcing teams to CONSIDER black head coaching candidates isn’t exactly the same thing as Affirmative Action. I’m guessing that opponents of Affirmative Action aren’t offended by it because it forces colleges to CONSIDER admitting potential black students, but because it does give a competitive advantage (which many believe it to counterbalance societal disadvantages but that is another story).
Smizzle – the problem with rules and laws of this nature is that it ASSUMES everyone is guilty of racism. It is another instance where our society passes laws/rules that cater to the EXCEPTION.
Oh, Mildred Loving, of Loving vs. Virginia, just died last year, in 2008.
One of the parties to a United States Supreme Court decision that said Virginia can’t prevent interracial marriage, was still alive last year! She was only 69, so she kind of died relatively young.
Assuming Mildred Loving had children at the time of this landmark Supreme Court decision, they would be what, 42 years of age right now? Perfect age to start getting legit feelers for a head coaching job for an up-and-comer.
Ignorance of CONTEMPORARY or VERY RECENT United States history is a huge problem.
TOON, my point was not about Affirmative Action. Unless the Rooney Rule is forcing teams to make HIRES it is completely incomparable.
Why anyone would complain about NFL teams being forced to interview minority candidates is beyond comprehension to me.
I don’t think it makes you racist if you don’t like the Rooney Rule, I just don’t get why someone would care.
Smizz – I object to it because of the interviews that take place where the candidate has NO SHOT to get the job and was only interviewed because they are black. And if the league’s goal is to strive for further diversification, why is it only BLACK coaches that meet the criteria? what about Asian, Indian, & Jewish coaches?
I think its meant to equalize the number of people seeking to become head coaches from various races to the number of head coaches. I think its quite clear that the biggest source of head coaches is former college or NFL players.
Operating under the assumption that players from each race attempt to become coaches after their playing careers end proportionately to the % of each race in this pool of candidates, and also operating under the assumption that people of all races are equally intelligent, then you’re left with an understanding of why the Rooney Rule exists.
Wasn’t Mike Tomlin arguably a Rooney Rule guy but he blew Pittsburgh’s brass away at his interview?
Here’s an interesting story about it.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/steelers/s_489701.html
It appears as though being that he had only 1 year – albeit a great year – as a Defensive Coordinator under this belt (with the Vikes), it wasn’t all that likely he’d have gotten interviews when there were some very highly-regarded, more established names out there, like Russ Grimm.
Chan Gailey was recommended by Cowher to replace him.
Toon it is not just about the interviewing now it is also about giving young coaches the hope that they will have a chance too some day. Reinforcing that anyone can become a coach cannot be negative. Eventually I’m sure it will be phased out but until then…the majority of players are black, none of the owners (other than investors who are “part” owners) and few of the coaches so fair is fair. And I hate telling people they “have” to do anything but if they vote on the rule and “agree” to it then it is self-imposed.
And here was me thinking that the Rooney rule meant that Manchester United players could shout at the referee without repercussions.
Anyone? OK, then.
*shuffles off*
All good points by Smizzle and RK. It just has always bothers me that people who have earned their station in life are stigmatized as “being a number” because systems like this exist.