No question, the Washington Redskins harkened back to their racist past last weekend by spitting in the face of diversity.They (ahem) interviewed one of their black assistant coaches for the head job that was filled at the time and whose replacement already was known. And, yes, the Seattle Seahawks had zero intentions of hiring the black assistant coach they (ahem, ahem) interviewed last week despite having another guy virtually signed, sealed and delivered.
And, yes, with another Dr. King holiday approaching, the NFL joins its peers in professional and collegiate sports by not totaling making racial progress.
That said, I haven't a problem with the Rooney Rule, named for Steelers owner Dan Rooney (pictured).
Neither should you -- nor should anybody else -- when it comes to a mostly wonderful rule that requires NFL teams to interview at least one minority candidate before hiring a coach or front-office official. The rule is flawed, because all rules are, but this one is less flawed than its alternatives.
Even so, former NFL head coach Tony Dungy and others have blasted the rule's integrity during the last few days. They mentioned how the Redskins and Seahawks stiff-armed the spirit of the rule by continuing to interview those aforementioned black assistant coaches -- even though those teams knew from the start that they were going to hire Mike Shanahan and Pete Carroll, respectively.
That's the tiny picture. As for the gigantic one, there is John Wooten, the chairman of the Fritz Pollard Alliance -- which spurred the Rooney Rule into existence -- and Wooten has this whole thing exactly right.
"No. 1, it's easy for guys to say the rule is not this or not that," said Wooten, 73, telling the truth to FanHouse about Rooney Rule bashers, who generally mean well, but rarely have an alternative that doesn't feature a fairy tale scenario of everybody singing "We Are the World" from now through eternity.
Wooten, by the way, is a former NFL offensive lineman, who later was an accomplished player personnel guy for three decades with the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles and Baltimore Ravens. He played during the league's truly racially insensitive time of the late 1950s to the latter 1960s. He was around when the Redskins flaunted their reputation as anti-minority by playing "Dixie" as part of their game-day routine.
Not only that, Wooten was among the league's Jackie Robinsons in a suit when he joined the Cowboys' player personnel department in 1975. There were no NFL black head coaches back then. In fact, when Wooten helped form the Fritz Pollard Alliance in September 2002, with the league introducing the Rooney Rule barely a month after that, there were just two back head coaches in Dungy and Herm Edwards.
Now look.
"Let's go back and examine exactly what this rule has done as it relates to the NFL, OK?" Wooten said. "Would Marvin Lewis have gotten the job in Cincinnati if the Rooney Rule wasn't in existence?"
Nope. Bengals owner and president Mike Brown has said that he wasn't thinking about hiring a black coach until he was introduced to Lewis through the Fritz Pollard Alliance in 2003. Now, seven years later, Lewis has the highest winning percentage during the regular season of any Bengals coach in their 42-year history. That includes Paul Brown, Mike's legendary father, who founded the franchise.
Elsewhere . . .
"All of us, starting with me, thought Russ Grimm or Ken Whisenhunt was going to get the Pittsburgh Steelers' job [in 2007], and Mr. Rooney, who really didn't have to interview Mike Tomlin [to satisfy the Rooney Rule], because he already had interviewed [another minority candidate], talked to Mike Tomlin anyway," said Wooten, referring to Dan Rooney.
Rooney later used his considerable prestige among the NFL hierarchy to get the rule passed, and then put his actions where his mouth was by hiring then-34-year-old Tomlin.Two seasons later, Tomlin was the youngest coach ever to win a Super Bowl.
Without the Rooney Rule, none of that happens. Neither does the hiring of most of the NFL's other five black head coaches. "Mike Singletary [with the San Francisco 49ers]. Jim Caldwell [with the Indianapolis Colts]. I mean, these jobs didn't just come open and an NFL owner just happened to grab these guys," Wooten said.
The Fritz Pollard Alliance identifies black candidates for various NFL jobs, preps them and then contacts teams to interview them. There also are follow-up sessions, with the leaders of the alliance asking the interviewers what their black candidates did right and wrong to help them and others in the future.
The results? Well, while Caldwell just became the league's first head coach ever to begin his career at 14-0, Singletary took the 49ers to their first non-losing season (8-8) in six years during his first full season as an NFL head guy.
In addition to Lewis, Tomlin, Singletary and Caldwell, you have Lovie Smith, who led the Chicago Bears to a Super Bowl. Then there is 33-year-old Raheem Morris, who rose out of nowhere from defensive coordinator to head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this season. After a predictable rough start with a bad team, Morris spurred the Buccaneers down the stretch by taking over the defensive play calling.
So what's the problem with the Rooney Rule again?
You can't legislate morality. Plus, even though the process that the Redskins and the Seahawks used to fill their head-coaching positions was shaky at best, there is the human nature aspect to all of this, and it has nothing to do with race.
It has everything to do with celebrity.
Sometimes, NFL owners just want a splashy hire -- for better or worse -- and that's their constitutional right to make fools of themselves.
"You know and I know that owners are always going to be infatuated with the glamour coaches, because they always have," said Wooten, with the Redskins' Daniel Snyder (Steve Spurrier, the second coming of Joe Gibbs) sprinting front and center of the pack in this regard. He was going to hire Shanahan no matter what. That means Snyder's interview of Redskins assistant coach Jerry Gray last month, when Jim Zorn still was the head coach, was fraudulent.
But those things happen in a world run by human beings with all sorts of biases and preferences. Those things will continue to happen, too -- whether you have the Rooney Rule or not -- unless its slew of bashers have a better idea.
Which they don't.
Comments (Page 1 of 3)
"No question, the Washington Redskins hearkened back to their racist past last weekend by spitting in the face of diversity."
And what racist past would that be, exactly? Please be specific.
Either way, your statement is not accurate. The Redskins did not spit in the face of diversity, they spit in the face of the Rooney rule. They are NOT the same thing.
The Rooney rule needs to be abolished. You wax eloquent (pompous, really) about the rule, and make a caricature out of people opposing the rule, but at it's core, the rule is racist and demeaning. It basically says that minorities can't get an interview on their own merits without whitey's help. And the rule has an unintended consequence -- minority candidates can almost never be sure the interview request they get is legit, or if it being requested simply to pay lip service to this jacked up rule.
So, what if a team already knows which coach they want to hire before or as soon as the opening exists? What option do they have under this rule than to conduct a sham of an interview? If they have no intent of hiring anybody but the one coach they have targeted, their only two options are to conduct a sham Rooney interview or not conduct any Rooney interview. You can't MAKE them want to seriously consider another candidate simply by requiring the interview, so what is the point in complaining about it? The Rooney rule requires a minority interview, the team conducts a minority interview -- but that's not good enough?
What you want isn't compliance, what you want is thought-policing.
"And what racist past would that be, exactly? Please be specific."
OK. The Redskins were the last NFL team to integrate (in 1962, fifteen years after Jackie Robinson integrated baseball), and that was only because of not only pressure from The Washington Post, but because the Secretary of the Interior threatened to big the Feds down on them if they didn't. There's a hilarious photograph of a demonstration by the American Nazi Party, in which the members carry placards reading, "Mr. Marshall [the team's owner], Keep the Redskins White!"
Which, of course, brings us to the team's very name. How many movie Westerns have some character saying something along the lines of "The only good redskin is a dead redskin"? (Maybe for a little equity, Minnesota could change the name of its team from the Vikings to the Whiteskins.
No substantial integration, or instance of racial justice, in this country has ever been done voluntarily. It's always taken the coercion of the Emancipation Proclamation, the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, the Voting Rights Act, etc.
The Rooney Rule does not establish a quota of minority coaches in the NFL, nor does it compel a team to hire a minority coach; it only requires that a minority candidate be interviewed when there's an opening. The economic structure of the NFL, especially regarding TV money, means that even losing teams make money, and the draft--by giving losing teams first shot at the best players in each round--lessens the possibility that losing teams will stay losing. Add to that the fact that NFL owners--mostly silver-haired white businessmen--aren't the most progressive group in the world, and it severely weakens the idea that owners want only to win and will hire a coach of whatever skin color in order to do it. If the Rooney Rule--which, by the way, is not imposed on the league from the outside, but, reluctantly, from the inside (sort of like an alcoholic's throwing out his liquor in order to make himself stay sober)--were repealed, the NFL might continue to hire minority coaches, but might backslide.
Finally, just because there are ways to cheat on the spirit of the Rooney Rule, e.g., go-through-the-motion sham interviews with minority candidates--doesn't obviate the general virtue of the rule. There are lots of ways to adhere technically to lots of rules, including the Ten Commandments, while de facto violating them.
I don't like quotas, period. Yes, you might find some pinhead owners or GM's that would not interview minorities, but I think the vast majority would interview and hire minorities. They don't have trouble taking the best players of any race/ethnicity. I think the same holds true for coaches. Fact is that some guys earn big reputations by being successful. So why shouldn't they be hired. The rule caused the embarrassment for the coaches that were interviewed after the fact.
the sad thing is i keep hearing "it makes teams glance over other talent, blah blah blah."
no it doesn't, teams that want to look for different talent will, and the teams who already know who they want are going to get who they want.
the rule is just a formality, and if you're like me, you aren't much for formalities.
Why should a man be given a job because of his color. Obama won not because he was the best man for the job but because he was black. I am a hispanic male in my last two promotions have been because of my knowledge not because of my skin color. If there was any indication I was being promoted because of my race I would not have taken it. No matter what your skin color is you still have to earn the right to be promoted. Funny how after all these years some people want everything handed to them. It wasn't my ancestors that brought blacks to the United States, when will we stop paying for these mistakes. Funny thing I never hear a native american speak or demand he be given something because of what happen to his ancestors. Native Americans are the real victims yet I hear no demands. Earn the right to be hired as a coach what are you teaching our kids you don't have to earn the right to get a job just cry wolf because of your skin color and you will get the job.
Exactly. I've never gotten a job because of my color. I HAVE been turned down because I WASN'T a minority. Happened in 04 and again in 05.
They even told me so. But, in RTV, it doesn't matter... they can break the eoe pact. Go figure.
I see that the ANGRY WHITE MALE crowd has taken over and bombarded these Rooney Rule blogs. Do you guys have a secret link or code to alert one another? With all due respect Terrance, it's not even worth having a substantive, factual, intelligent debate about the merits and objectives of the Rooney Rule. Which is to give minorities the OPPORTUNITY to interview for head coaching jobs that they had been systematically locked out of, excluded from and discriminated against for decades. These facts are proven, undeniable and documented. The problem is that every white boy who fails at a particular employment opportunity cannot fathom the notion of losing to a better candidate, let alone a minority. So the easy, predictable solution is to blame minorities and garner sympathy as an excuse. They are so embedded in their limited capacity because of their misplaced, misguided anger and rage. A topic such as this one gives the Angry White Males a forum to rant and rage about the same old tired, stale, predictable outbursts of unfairness along with the name calling and stereotypical insults......don't waste your time Terrance!
Hey krumpgirl, did you even read any of the anti-rule posts? Or are you just upset that there ARE anti-rule posts?
What exactly do you think the goal of the rule is? To read your post, you think it exists to make up for past wrongs. But we're not living in decades past, we're living in 2010. Your only choices right now are to let things go along their natural course, or to overcompensate. Nothing you can do can fix past wrongs. And in 2010, minorities are hardly being "systematically locked out of" coaching opportunities -- and contrary to your misguided beliefs, not all minority hires since the Rooney rule was implemented were due to the Rooney rule (only two that I can think of) -- in the rest of the cases, the minority coach that was hired was the guy the team originally targeted (with no impetus from the rule).
Regarding your other asinine comments (the entire last half of your post), this discussion has nothing to do with "white boys" failing, losing to a better candidate or minority, or anything like that. Everyone on this side of the argument would say that teams should hire the best coach available regardless of race, and that means that white boys will sometimes lose out to minorities... AND WE DON'T CARE! We have principled objections to the Rooney rule, which you would know if you had bothered to read the posts. But instead of responding to any of the arguments, you just launched into some kind of feminist rage binge. That might help you relieve some PMS stress, but it's hardly conducive to rational debate.
I see that some posts here are on the verge of racism reguarding the colour of skin ( krumpgirl ) get off the ANGRY WHITE MALE thing and move with the times people like you keep racism alive andDONT jump on the (PAST) bandwagon..As for you Terence (in your opinion) this is the case with the Redskins BUT in any other NORMAL persons opinion THE BEST PERSON FOR THE JOB GOT THE JOB..How many interviews have you been to that you didnt get the job because someone had already got the job BUT still the rest had to be interviewed ITS CALLED HARD LUCK ... If any owner wants to hire someone its their money that pays they are the BOSS so its their call and they hire who they like so your blog means nothing other than to bring people who still beleive in racism out of the dark corners they live in..Regards to all normal people who post here..
I have a better idea... just get rid of it. It's a racist rule.
How can Terrence sit here and call a rule "wonderful" when it specifically singles people out based on the color of their skin?
I remember when Martin Luther King Jr had a dream that people would be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I'm guessing he also wouldn't be in favor of token interviews given to minorities just to satisfy a broken rule.
Get rid of the Rooney Rule. If a team wants to hire a less qualified white candidate and pass over a better minority candidate, then so be it. That's THEIR loss.
Actually it has nothing to do with color. The rule states MINORITY CANIDATE. Chinese, Latino, Black, FEMALE....... any of these canidates would suffice. I still don't agree with the rule there are some GREAT black coaches out there and some AWFUL white coaches I feel the job should be gained through MERIT not MINORITY status.
You write: "All of us, starting with me, thought Russ Grimm or Ken Whisenhunt was going to get the Pittsburgh Steelers' job [in 2007], and Mr. Rooney, who really didn't have to interview Mike Tomlin [to satisfy the Rooney Rule], because he already had interviewed [another minority candidate], talked to Mike Tomlin anyway," said Wooten, referring to Dan Rooney.
"Rooney later used his considerable prestige among the NFL hierarchy to get the rule passed, and then put his actions where his mouth was by hiring then-34-year-old Tomlin.
"Two seasons later, Tomlin was the youngest coach ever to win a Super Bowl.
"Without the Rooney Rule, none of that happens"
Um...you literally just quoted a guy saying that Pittsburgh "didn't have to interview Mike Tomlin [to satisfy the Rooney Rule], because he already had interviewed [another minority candidate]."
So, by "none of that happens" what you meant to say was "happens anyways"? I mean, goodness.
I realize that to you, as with most on the left, the hierarchy (not your ones self mind you, just others) goes: Blacks, Hispanics, Whites, Asians (why? Who knows).
God forbid we would ever truly become color-blind by getting rid of these ridiculous rules, affirmative action and the like.
The racist Redskins past he is reffering to is when George Marshall owned the team. He refuseed to sign or draft black players. He traded the 1st pick in the draft to the Browns so they could draft Ernie Davis because he did not want to. The players name is escaping me now but they made a black player wear long sleaves so that Marshall would not notice that he was black when he played. Yes I am a skins fan, and have lived in the DC metro area all my life.
If Tony Dungy decided to get back into coaching, would the teams that would be falling over one another to get him, have to interview a white candidate before the hired him?
foncool 1-14-2010 10:04AM
If Tony Dungy decided to get back into coaching, would the teams that would be falling over one another to get him, have to interview a white candidate before the hired him?
-----------------------------What a great, thought provoking, post. The best. You make the point better than anyone.
"But those things happen in a world run by human beings with all sorts of biases and preferences."
This statement you uttered really refers to you as much as anyone.
In the REAL world we live in today, there are THOUSANDS of companies who hire EXCLUSIVELY based on COLOR of skin, and that color is BLACK. If you sit there and think it does not go on your one very naive person. As a owner of a job placement firm, I can GUARANTEE you jobs are given out to others of different color based solely on color, not talent. If you do not think that major corporations do not have numbers or %'s of a certin race your all fooling yourselves. Companies that fall below a % will be fined or even worse in some cases. We all have to be walking on eggshells any more with the people we hire. I find it sad that a man, regardless of color, is turned down for a position based on his or her's color over a man or woman with true talent. NO ONE should get ANY job based on their skin color. But you sure won't here of a black man turning that job down even if they know it's because of the color of the skin they have and not based on the "best man for the job". The Rooney Rule is about as raciest as a rule could come, just reverse racism. And all this talk of Tony Dungy being some great coach, lol, he couldn't win it all in Tampa, where he should have won it twice, and needed a great white QB to finally beat the worst team to make it to the Super Bowl, (Bears), before he became this "winner". A great man yes, a great coach? ,,,not even close. Black or white.
BlueTalon hit the nail right on its head. I believe the Rooney rule, just brings up Racism in a sport that is trying to rid itself of it. It is hard to say that the NFL or NCAA is Racism when the vast majority of its players are a so called minority. Now does this mean that these same leagues are being racist to the so called "angry white man", one could argue this. One could also say the best athletes get to play in the NCAA and NFL no matter race. So its just better to keep racism out of any discussion, if you are qualified, you will get a shot
Leave it to Moore to write the article about race. So sick of it. RACIST!
Calm down, the s**t the redskins and Seahawks done was foul, and everyone on this blog knows it, but, then again who cares you can't always make people do the right thing. Enough said.