BREER: Patriots Abusing Rooney Rule – “It looks like a Sham”
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The New England Patriots have clearly set their sights on what appears to be Mike Vrabel, with Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson also said to be someone they’re looking to speak with.
Ian Rapoport previously reported that the club will speak to Vrabel today, while Albert Breer reported the club also requested to speak with Johnson – which due to the Lion’s postseason situation – would potentially happen on Zoom. Jordan Schultz reported that Johnson will speak with New England and the Raiders on Friday, followed by the Bears and Jaguars on Saturday. That fits the limited window of Thursday through Saturday he’s said to have to speak with teams.
Owner Robert Kraft said back at the beginning of the week the plan was to move “fast,” and the club already conducted two interviews with former offensive coordinators Byron Leftwich and Pep Hamilton, which satisfies the “Rooney Rule” as the club continues its head coaching search.
However, as there was a year ago, there has been some frustration with how the club has again handled the interview process. With Leftwich and Hamilton, neither coach was clearly a legitimate candidate. Neither has worked in the NFL over the past couple of seasons, with the only positive being that the team may have at least potentially gotten some intel from an offensive standpoint to help them through this process.
For New England, the idea should be to make sure they explore all their options ahead of what’s about to be one of the most important decisions they’ll make, especially coming off one they already got wrong.
At the same time, the challenge is that Vrabel has already undergone interviews, and with the Patriots being a known suitor, other teams, including the Raiders, seem to be ramping up their interest. Vrabel and Robert Kraft may have a good relationship, but Vrabel also feels like someone who might not be willing to wait for them to do their due diligence.
In the meantime, the process of talking to Leftwich and Hamilton doesn’t feel like due diligence, which is something Breer reacted harshly to on NBC Sports Boston.
“It looks like a Sham. I’ll call it what I think it is,” said Breer. “Those are two guys, and all due respect to Pep Hamilton and Byron Leftwich, I think they’ll struggle to get coordinator jobs this year. For people who don’t know the mechanics of the rule, you have to have at least two in-person interviews with diverse candidates, and you are not allowed to interview anybody who’s working for a team, playoff or otherwise. You can’t bring in Miami’s Anthony Weaver for an interview until after the divisional round. The reason you would do this and how some of guys in who aren’t working for teams right now is because that’s the only way to check that box so you can actually go forward with hiring somebody.”
“This is very clearly flatting the rule. We can argue about how valid the rule is and everything else. What gives the Patriots the right to do this? They haven’t had a legitimate coaching search in 25 years. The Rooney Rule didn’t exist 25 years ago. So you can say the rule sucks, and maybe it does, but what gives you the right not to have to jump through all the hoops that everybody else has for two decades?”
The fact the Patriots are moving quickly tells you that they’re hoping to get ahead of other teams who might potentially be in the mix, and the interviews of Leftwich and Hamilton checks that box. Phil Perry believes the Patriots want to make a decision in the coming days, which is why they’re handling things this way.
“I think that’s the biggest thing here is that you’re moving quickly because there’s urgency with Mike Vrabel,” said Perry. “He’s already been out. He already interviewed with a team before the season even ended. You got to jump on that train because it’s moving. My expectation is this will be done relatively quickly. Whether it’s Mike Vrabel or anybody else, I think the team would like to be done with this by the end of the week if they could. I’m just telling you what I think they think right now.”
Some may argue about the Rooney rule, but Greg Bedard of the Boston Sports Journal made a good point about their importance in his recent podcast. He pointed out that when it comes to the rule, legitimate candidates at least getting exposure might play a key role in someone potentially emerging on another team after being able to get in front of an NFL franchise.
“I think you guys remember at this time last year when we heard about the Jerod Mayo succession language, I was a little bit ticked off because while they ended up hiring a black head coach, which is great, but I still thought they violated the substance of the Rooney Rule,” said Bedard. “The reason for having it, which is it’s not just about hiring minorities, it’s about giving minorities a bigger platform, advancing them.”
“That can happen when, say, the Patriots conducted a full search, and even if they landed on Mayo, they could have interviewed any number of minority candidates, and all of a sudden, and this goes for any job, if they interviewed them and they’re impressed, maybe they don’t hire them, but they go talk to one of their owners’ buddies at one of these meetings and they say, ‘You know what? We really liked this guy, but we didn’t end up hiring [them]. You should definitely talk to them.’ That helps people advance, or they might get a coordinator position out of those things.”
For now, Breer believes that the way the Patriots have approached it goes against the spirit of the rule, and he feels if the Patriots truly believe in their relationship with Vrabel, they should follow the process like the rest of the league.
“I think it’s complete garbage,” said Breer. “I think what gives you the right to skip the process that the Raiders have to go through, that the bears have to go through, that other teams, the Jets have to go through, teams that are competing for him, what gives you the right to jump the line? Just because you have a relationship with them, well, the Raiders do, too. The Raiders have Tom Brady and Richard Seymour there. What gives you the right to jump in front of all these other teams? You’re worried about losing him. Well, if you have that strong of a relationship with him, you shouldn’t be worried about losing him.”
“You should go through the whole process like the Chargers did last year when they knew they were going to hire Jim Harbaugh, probably from the jump. They still interviewed 15 head coaching candidates. They interviewed nine general manager candidates. The Spanos would tell you now that they’re a better organization for having gone through that. Jim Harbaugh has actually benefited from them going through that. Again, it’s like putting yourself in a different way. We’re not subject to the rules, which this organization, we should note, has had problems with in the past.”
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Let the media cry. Corporations and universities are finally jettisoning these outdated political hiring practices anyway. Kraft at least woke up and in effect said, I politically hired a Head Coach last season and was lauded by the media bean counters for it but suffered mightily. We need to correct that mistake NOW and get the solid experienced guy we passed up on while hes still available.You rarely get second chances like this. No more social experiments.This is for team survival and relevancy for years to come.
What’s the nontroversey now, that the pats are moving to fast? “Beetle” said on NBC Boston last night “it’s more of the same” relative to the pats not doing due diligence just like they did with Mayo ….. gosh…so you want to interview a dozen guys while Vrable signs elsewhere? No. Teams act fast and coaches sign quickly. It’s a small league and there isn’t 300 resumes in Krafts in-box. The Krafts spent years knowing Mayo was the guy. No rush there right? Secondly, last year it appeared Mayo and Vrable were the two choices…. so it’s likely the Krafts… Read more »