Have Teams Found New Ways to Skirt the Rooney Rule?

NFL teams have found new ways to expedite the coaching process. By skirting the letter of the Rooney Rule requiring them to interview qualified minority coaching candidates, teams like the Kansas City Chiefs, Jacksonville Jaguars and Miami Dolphins can move faster to select the candidates they really want to pursue.

There were more teams that fired coaches this year but these three teams in particular used the mid-season firing of their head coaches to get a start on fulfilling their Rooney Rule obligation. After firing the head coach they had in place these three teams promoted a minority coach from the previous coach’s staff to fill the interim coaching position.

Another way teams are skirting the rule is by firing minority coaches after the season ends as opposed to firing them midseason. The Oakland Raiders, Indianapolis Colts and Tampa Bay Buccaneers waited until their seasons were complete before firing their coaches so they can argue that their consideration to retain those coaches should count toward fulfilling their Rooney Rule requirement.

The Rooney Rule is named after Dan Rooney who is the chairman of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The rule stipulates that a team must interview at least one minority candidate during their process of filling a head coaching vacancy. It has been expanded to also include the general manager position.

With the institution of the Rooney Rule, NFL teams have complained that it takes them longer to complete the coaching process due to the fact that there are not as many minority coaching candidates available to interview. Teams also feel that some of the minority candidates that are available refuse to be a token interview for teams that they feel are going to go in another direction.

This creates a controversy like the one the Detroit Lions experienced back in 2003. Minority candidates refused to interview for their head coaching vacancy because of the rumors that the Lions were set to hire Steve Mariucci. The Lions did hire Mariucci but ended up having to pay a $200,000 fine for not adhering to the Rooney Rule in their hiring practice.

It doesn’t help that most of the minority coordinators in the league coach on the defensive side of the ball. Many of the teams with head coaching vacancies this year were looking for offensive minded coaches and the only minority offensive coordinator currently in the league is the Buffalo Bills’ Curtis Modkins. As poorly as the Bills’ offense played during the second half of the season, he doesn’t have to worry about getting too many calls.

That’s not to say that all teams seek to skirt the rule. Last season Leslie Frasier was able to retain the head coaching job in Minnesota after serving as an interim coach and this season the Chiefs have given Romeo Crennel the job after his interim stint. This just goes to show that hiring minorities on an interim basis can serve an added purpose for teams.

An interim position serves as an on-the-job interview allowing the team they coach for and every other team in the league to see how that person performs at that position. It also gives minorities the opportunity to see what it is really like to run a team their way which can help them in the interview process or in future coordinator jobs.

But for most teams hiring a minority coach to fill the interim position is just a formality. As teams seek to fulfill their Rooney Rule obligation with interim hires, more and more minority candidates will get the chance to show off their abilities to lead a team.

So while it’s probably not what the teams intended minorities will get more and more chances to show what they can do in the spotlight of actual game situations. This is still a long way from being a win-win situation but in many instances this could put teams and minority candidates in a mutually beneficial position. That’s probably the best the NFL could ask for right now.

Roosevelt Hall is an NFL Blogger for The Sport Mentalist and also writes for both The Penalty Flag and Outside The Redzone. He can be contacted at RHall_TPFB@Yahoo.com. Follow him on Twitter @Sportmentalist.