NFL moves to bolster, expand Rooney Rule
The NFL on Monday moved to bolster and expand the Rooney Rule, heading into the 20th season since its 2003 adoption.
Moving forward, each of the league's 32 teams will be required to employ a minority or a woman assistant to work with the offensive staff. This person should have "regular and direct" contact with the head coach and the entire offensive staff and contribute to the offensive game plan "where appropriate."
From the way the NFL's announcement is worded, it doesn't appear that having a minority in one of the above positions already in place would satisfy this new Rooney Rule offshoot. Instead, it seems the NFL is launching a new long-term fellowship position and is willing to pay half the minority fellow's salary, up to $200,000 for the 2022 season.
As the Rooney Rule completes its second decade*, it has been a success by the letter of the rule (minority representation among NFL head coaches is up from the paltry 6 percent of the 2002 season) but not by its spirit. Minority head coaches are afforded less time to post a winning record than their white counterparts, and they're more likely to be fired for falling short of expectations.
(* The rule was expanded Monday so that interviewing a woman for a coaching and/or front office position also satisfies the Rooney Rule.)
The Dolphins fired Brian Flores for going 9-8 this season, one year after a 10-6 record in 2021. He has since sued the league and two teams for discriminatory hiring practices. The Detroit Lions fired Jim Caldwell after back-to-back 9-7 seasons in 2016-17; the club has not won more than six games in a season, under two separate head coaches, in the four seasons since.
Monday's initiative is an acknowledgment by the league that the lack of minority representation among high-powered coaching positions is a problem with two fronts. The first, of course, is a shallow talent pool -- a pool that lacks depth because of lack of opportunity, not a lack of talent. By requiring teams to hire a minority coach on the offensive side of the pool, the NFL is attempting to diversify its candidate pool in the future.
The second front is the lack of diversity by the people making the hiring. The league has never had a Black majority owner, and only one (Jacksonville's Shad Khan) is a minority.
“The NFL member clubs support the important goal of increasing diversity among ownership,” the NFL said. “Accordingly, when evaluating a prospective ownership group of a member club pursuant to League policies, the membership will regard it as a positive and meaningful factor if the group includes diverse individuals who would have a significant equity stake in and involvement with the club, including serving as the controlling owner of the club.”
The Denver Broncos are up for sale as you read this, and the record for highest purchase price of a North American professional sports team (New York Mets, $2.4 billion) is expected to fall upon their sale. A controlling owner must own at least 30 percent of the team; at $2.5 billion, that would mean fronting at least $775 million.
That's an immediate opportunity -- for the Bowlen family trust in particular and NFL ownership in general -- to put its money where its mouth is.
Ultimately, the Rooney Rule will be a success when it is no longer necessary, when teams no longer have to be poked, prodded and cajoled into hiring minority assistant coaches so that they can one day become minority head coaches. When front offices don't have to be incentivized to interview and hire non-white coaches. When it doesn't take a Black owner or a Black GM to hire a Black head coach.
But Monday's move was a positive step in one direction. Twenty years in, the NFL recognized diversity hiring is a systemic issue that will take years to fix.
