Personally, I find the Rooney Rule to be wholly ineffective for the good of the NFL.
I see some folks cite that there are X number of African American players in the league and there is a poor representation of coaches accordingly. Because there is some/any correlation between the skill set required to be an excellent NFL player and an excellent NFL coach?
You see this all the time in other industries. A great engineer might make super crappy manager at an engineering firm. A great doctor might make a horrible direction of medicine at a hospital. What you did to get you into management is no indicator that you would be good at management.
I actually think the rule is racist in itself. It's application is not to help all minorities, just primarily to help African Americans. I don't see anyone lobbying to get Amy Trask of the Raiders a GM slot with an NFL franchise. You could argue that being a woman is a bigger drawback than being black. I don't see anyone demanding Norm Chow get an interview. Or Pete Rodriguez back in the day. Or pushing super hard for Ron Rivera years ago.
The rule, IMHO, presupposes many things
1) That there will always be a qualified African American coaching candidate available to interview. Which might not always be true. Coaching potential hires is like any other situation, some good years, some lean years. Depending on who is out there and who wants to coach and who has name recognition.
2) That losing football games is not punishment enough in the NFL. If you are a racist owner and you overlook an outstanding coach for a white one, you will probably lose NFL games. That's not enough of a punishment? Here's a business concept that pro Rooney Rulers avoid - the market corrects itself. The rule says that most people will behave in a manner that being black and punishing blacks in the NFL means more than winning. I find that incredibly arrogant
3) That a black coach will be denied opportunity simply for being black. What if he happens to be a jerk? A POS human being that no one likes to work with? Maybe the owners wife hates his wife. Maybe he spits when he talks. Maybe he's bad with the press and has a bad attitude. Sometimes people don't hate you because you are black or a woman or gay or something else, sometimes they hate you because you are a lousy human being. Some people, independent of race, are like that. They aren't good to their word. They aren't reliable. They can't get along with other people. They let their ego or insecurities rule them. This can be true for people of any race. The Rooney Rule, IMHO, locks out the possibility that a potential hire might be a horrible person that no one likes. That's super arrogant in my book
4) That there are an unlimited number of interviews. If an owner will do five coaching interviews and will give one to a black candidate because the rule says so, does it rule out the possibility that a white coach might not get an interview who might actually deserve one? The rule assumes that a black interview does not come at the cost of any other interview. What that means is it's ok to take interview opportunities away, just as long as the person in question isn't black. Real Life 101, every opportunity you get often comes at the cost of an opportunity of another. You get a job interview, they aren't likely to interview everyone. Maybe they interview the ten people. If you weren't there, maybe number 11 gets a shot.
5) That there are only 32 jobs period. And that with any high demand, high profile job where there are ONLY 32 SLOTS, and only maybe a third of them are open every year, that the process will probably be UNFAIR TO EVERYONE. Find any job with few slots and high demand and you'll find a system where lots of people will feel disenfranchised by the process. Maybe someone isn't going to hire you because you are black, maybe they won't because there are ONLY 32 FREAKING JOBS like it in the world. Plenty of deserving candidates don't get into medical school every year. Black, white, yellow, women, men, gay, old, etc. Life isn't fair because you happen to be black? No, sometimes life isn't fair because it's just not fair and no one cares if you are black.
6) There there is no other way to create a situation to improve the opportunities for head coaching slots for EVERYONE PERIOD. Something like having all owners spend a week somewhere and forced to meet and greet and deal with coaches and front office personnel of all types and backgrounds. The Rooney Rule doesn't say let's find a way to increase exposure to everyone, just, in application, African American males.
I'd like the Rooney Rule and it's proponents try to help get Oakland Raiders executive Amy Trask a GM job in the NFL. But why do that? She's not black. I'd like to see Tony Dungy reach out to not just Michael Vick to help him fix his life, but also Todd Marinovich. But why do that, he's not black. I'd like to see a sports caster walk up to Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy, headed to the Superbowl, acknowledge them as men who worked hard and love the game, instead of citing first that they are black men who happen to be football coaches and not, what I feel is more appropriate, men who love the game and bring passion to their work and love coaching and they just happen to be black. But why do that? Why bring up that a man love football first instead of pointing out he happens to be black first?
IMHO, the Rooney Rule says inequality is not ok if it is perceived to lessen the opportunities for blacks, but if blacks are benefited and a non black gets fewer opportunities as a trade off, then who really cares?
Is there probably racism against blacks in this society and in the NFL. Probably. And that's sad. I can openly acknowledge that. I can openly acknowledge that it's probably not easy to be black in this society. You know what I will NEVER EVER hear. NEVER EVER? I will never ever hear a black coach in the NFL say out loud that he might have received opportunities in the NFL at the cost of non African American coaches simply because he was black and that unfairness in his favor does nothing to promote the concept of actual equality.
I'm completely ok with people who have a problem with inequality in absolute terms.
I'm not completely ok with people who have a problem with inequality when it simply isn't working in their favor. But could care less about anyone else if it did.
I can say I don't know what it's like to be black in America and have to deal with all the issues that come with it. I just don't. I can't imagine it's easy.
But you know what African Americans, including coaching candidates, don't know? They don't know what it's like to NOT BE BLACK AND BE TOLD YOU DON'T KNOW HOW HARD IT IS FOR BLACKS and have everything you do and say that could turn into a PR disaster or a lawsuit at any moment, even if you've done nothing wrong.
The Rooney Rule, while I'm happy for Marvin Lewis and Romeo Crennel and Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy, makes me laugh. IMHO, it takes racism that isn't publicly acceptable by this society and ironically replaces it with racism that is privately acceptable by this society.
Todd Marinovich probably wants to know why no black coaches are lobbying for Amy Trask to have more opportunities in the NFL. Maybe he'd ask the question himself but he's likely still sitting in jail waiting for Tony Dungy's phone call.
