Coming out of the owners meetings this week, the NFL made another change to the Rooney Rule. Teams must now interview at least two external minority candidates for general manager positions and coordinator jobs, the league announced.
In 2009, the rule designed to increase minority hiring expanded to GMs, stipulating clubs must interview at least one minority candidate for those high-profile roles. Last year, the league implemented a firm policy expanding the Rooney Rule to coordinator positions. This week’s change will double those previous meeting mandates.
Last year, the NFL made major changes to the Rooney Rule for head coaches and GMs, incentivizing such hiring decisions by included draft pick compensation. Teams with head coaching vacancies were also required to interview two minority candidates for HC roles. Expansion on the coordinator front will allow for more diverse hiring pools going forward.
The NFL moved from two minority offensive coordinators in 2020 to five this year, with the Lions (Anthony Lynn), Colts (Marcus Brady) and Dolphins (Eric Studesville) making such hires. Three teams with GM vacancies — the Falcons, Lions and Washington — also hired minority candidates for those posts (Terry Fontenot, Brad Holmes, Martin Mayhew), moving the NFL from two to five in these positions as well.
“We have to do more because we clearly haven’t gotten to a place where we have to have more opportunity for a lot of these great [coaches]. The pipeline is great. The pipeline of coaching talent is great. The pipeline of minority coaching talent is great,” Jonathan Beane, NFL Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer said, via CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones. “But still the opportunity to interview for these roles is still not where we want it to be and certainly not for hires.”
Additionally, the NFL informed teams virtual interviews with head coaching candidates may be conducted during the final two weeks of the regular season. While the league introduced this option last season, it only notified teams this was permitted a day before that window opened. This year’s virtual interview window will open Dec. 27 and only applies to teams with in-season HC vacancies.
Why do the browns have a minority GM? BECAUSE HE IS QUALIFIED AND VERY GOOD AT HIS JOB. Not because of the color of his skin. These rules are racist
Correct. The Giants have an incompetent White guy, much to the fans’ regret.
And because he had a chance. All this does is give other people that same chance. You really shouldn’t be this bothered. If you really believe that the right candidate will get hired regardless, you shouldn’t care how many people or who interviews for the job. The fact that you’re mad makes you seem a little raci- nevermind you’ll probably say you have a black friend so you couldn’t possibly be.
so they want to gaslight more minorities? is this what the NFL calls progress?
This article contains a factual error.
The Bears hired Sean Desai as defensive coordinator this offseason. Desai is the first NFL coordinator of South Asian and Indian descent, both of which are recognized as minorities.
I simply don’t get this.
“road to hell is paved with good intentions”
Tackling the real important issues in the league I see.
Stupidest rule in pro sports. Simply requiring interviews of minorities to meet a “quota” is peak racism honestly. Why even put teams in this position?
You have 32 teams.
32 GM jobs.
32 OC jobs
32 DC jobs
32 HC jobs.
If you want more opportunities you need to add more teams. There’s a small/limited number of openings and positions in the Rooney Rule jobs. Add 8-16 teams to create more openings. Not easy, but its a better alternative than this stupid rule that gets teams in trouble for no reason if they don’t follow it.
No need for more teams.
Wow! Doubling down on the wholeness, not one but TWO interviews! Kudos to the NFL!
1) I commend the idea of getting minorities candidates access to higher jobs.
2) that being said, this is a step in the wrong direction.
They aren’t solving the issue by creating more interviews, and I don’t think teams are actively not hiring people because of their race. Would the NFL think it was fair if a more qualified candidate was passed over because of their race or lack there of?
They need to address the root of the issue, which is the lack of qualified Minority candidates, not the lack of interviews. Perhaps if there was an incentive for to hire at all levels, it would increase the potential pool. I don’t think many of the candidates that are interviewed are happy that they got a token interview.
My opinion is that most who get hired in the NFL rely on personal connections to get the job. There are even owners in the league that are only in that position because they inherited from their father. Minorities are at a distinct disadvantage at having those important connections which accounts for them often getting passed over in favor of someone who is better connected. The only color that matters in the NFL is GREENbacks.
When you change from a meritocracy to race-based diversity your product suffers.
The NFL has never been a meritocracy, it has always been a white mans club.
This could led to Bienemy getting twice as many interviews as before while getting passed by…
He is young and has a great job in KC so there is no reason for him to panic because of those prior rejections. If he accepts a HC job with a doormat franchise he will have more than a few regrets.
More window dressing for a window that remains stained with the fingerprints of the obstinate…..
Relatively noble goal.
Horrifically hypocritical and openly racist execution.
The Rooney Rule is one of the worst things in sports. The draft pick compensation makes it so much worse even.
Worst rule in sports. They are forced to just mess with minorities and bring them in for a pointless interview just to say hey don’t let door hit your ass on the way out. Great look for the nfl
So the league increased minority coordinators 150% from 2020 to 2021, and now the league fiddles with the rule? It’s a dumb rule to start with, either you are qualified or you aren’t. I would bet that there are a lot of minority position coaches out there already as it is. They probably had a much better chance at becoming a coordinator before this. Now they will only receive token interviews to satisfy the rule and it’s requirements. It’s a shame. I guess any interview at least gets you experience in interviews.
if, say, an OC goes and interviews for a HC position w another team and they do not get the job – do they still have their job as OC?