At least he put his name on it...

 

Except it's not a waste of time for the coaches being interviewed. This gets their name out, and helps them eventually get jobs.

 

This is very true.

 

Hello?!

 

The Rooney rule does not work if the organization knows who they want-it's just a show at that point.

 

It is a dumb rule.

 

Do most Rooney Rule interviewees eventually get a head coaching job though?

 

No, that is why they put in the Rooney Rule.

 

The rule is ridiculous. Everyone should realize that everyone knows who everyone is in the NFL. I'm pretty sure every organization knows every major coach/candidate from every other organization and it isnt getting anyones name out at all.

 

there's a clear difference between hearing someone is a decent candidate and interviewing them and confirming it yourself.

 

That's not true. Hearing secondhand that someone is a sharp guy doesn't convey the way an interview does. Also, maybe some of those "farcical" Rooney interviews actually get feet in the door and open up an owner's eye to a different candidate. Then again, our ownership allegedly said Mike Tomlin was "too hip-hop" so some idiots are still out there and wouldn't give a job to a black head coach regardless of his merit.

 

I like how this has become a "are the Saints violating the Rooney Rule?" discussion around the NFL, rather than a "are the Saints stupid?" discussion. Bill Parcells leaves shipwrecks in his wake.

And I especially like how no one is talking about Sean Payton's blatant attempt to protect his job by hiring the ultimate temp rather than promoting Pete Carmichael, Jr. for one year. After all, that might mean Carmichael, Jr. could eventually take Payton's job if he does well.

Serious question: when has this ever happened?

It wasn't "our ownership", aka Wayne Huizenga. It was someone on the 2007 coaching search team. Process of elimination led many to suspect that it was former CEO Joe Bailey.

 

The rule has been effective by getting the issue out there for the public if nothing else. It has also gotten minority coaches names out there for potential jobs, the rule is not stupid it has been a success, the NFL has a lot more minority coaches at all levels than it used to. People seem to act like it was 90 years ago that people were still thinking a black Qb or coach couldn't win it all, it wasn't that long ago. The rule was a reaction to a serious problem and its served its purpose. Has a single white candidate lost out on a job because of the Rooney Rule? Nope, so all it does is help get interviews and name recognition for deserving minority candidates, its a positive thing for the league and I do not understand why there is always someone blasting it for no apparent logical reason.

 

There were 7 minority coaches in the history of the nfl before the rule was implemented. Heading into the 2012 season alone there are 6 minority coaches. Last year there were 8. Of course the rule is a success.

This is from the abstract of a paper written on the Rooney Rule.

 

Okay now how many of those minority coaches were not candidates until being given a Rooney Rule interview? Anyone?

 

Considering that NFL Ownership is essentially a "Good ol' Boys Club" It is necessary.

 

NFL owners don't even know each other before becoming NFL owners, I doubt that.

The real good ol' boys club in the NFL is the coaching fraternity. Everyone is part of everyone else's coaching tree.

 

That would be a difficult stat to come up on, but the rule didn't have to do with specific candidates per se. It had to do with minority head coaches as a whole. The nfl saw that despite the fact that black players make up 90% of their league, they only had 7 minority head coaches ever (2 were coaching when the rule was implemented in 2004). Ever since then, minority head coaches are more common than they have ever been.

Now you could argue that the recent surge of minority coaches would have occurred without the rule, and its just a coincidence. However, that would be a hard point to argue considering that all circumstantial evidence shows that the increase in minority head coaches directly corresponds with the implementation of the Rooney Rule.

 

It's really easy to put to rest.

If the men who ended up becoming HC's were Rooney Rule interviews at some point previously the rule works. If they were not, the rule itself has nothing to do with it.

I'm all for equal opportunity and awareness. I just don't think the rule itself has changed anything.

 

I have only ever heard white people use that argument. I have NEVER heard a minority coach say anything about the benefits of interviewing for a job that is waiting to be filled by someone else. (Minority columnist, perhaps, but not minority coaches.)

The Rooney rule is racist at its core. "The colored boys can't do nothin' without some help from whitey. Once whitey gives the darky a boost, then he can achieve."

The sad irony is that the Rooney rule does far more damage than good. For all the purported good it is supposed to do, one overriding fact remains -- a minority coach can never be sure any interview is legitimate as long as the rule exists. Once it is abolished, then and only then will a minority coach know that when he is asked to interview for a coaching job, it represents a real shot at that job.

 

That is only true if you believe that people who become multi-millionaires enjoy wasting money

 

Please explain how your comment is related in any way to the point I made.

For the sake of the discussion, I will try to make my point a little clearer. If minority coaches really believed the same way about the Rooney rule as its white proponents, the minority coaches would be leaping at every opportunity to get interviewed. Because, after all, it gets their name out there, right?

But they don't respond that way. Why? Because they know teams are required to interview someone who looks like them. As long as it is required, they will always know that the first minority interview for a coaching job could very well just be checking off the box on the way to hiring the guy they really want. That leads to ridiculous scenarios like the Detroit Lions asking five different black coaches, and getting turned down five times, before going ahead and hiring Mooch. Or the Seattle Seahawks having to convince Leslie Frazier that their next head coach wouldn't be anything more than just a coach (wink, wink) before agreeing to an interview, after which they immediately hired Pete Carroll.

Leslie Frazier, by the way, had interviewed many times for head coaching positions. There was no need for him to "get his name out there" because everyone already knew who he was. As a matter of fact, his experience made him one of the most viable minority candidates, which made him almost an automatic invitee to token interviews. Can anyone blame him for being rather jaundiced about the practice?

Proponents of the Rooney rule talk out of both sides of their mouth. On one hand, they'll say how it only requires an interview, where's the harm in that? It's only an interview. But when a team conducts a minority interview for the sole purpose of fulfilling the Rooney rule requirement, suddenly it isn't good enough -- it has to be a real/genuine/legitimate interview! (However that is defined by the proponent of the moment.)

In other words, holding an interview to satisfy the Rooney rule is not good enough to satisfy the Rooney rule.


Let me ask you this: If you think the Rooney rule is such a good thing, and teams should be required to interview minority candidates, are you OK with minority coaches being required to go to interview when asked?

 

I don't want this to be about black and white. I'm white and I'm against the rule.

 

Try 67 percent and 30 percent white...

 

I could give a rats *** about the Rooney Rule myself. If I were the owner of a billion dollar franchise, I'm hiring who I feel comfortable with. BLACK, WHITE, or OTHER! But what WE think of the rule means nothing.

What is getting better is the inner core of NFL franchises. The league’s progress in hiring African-American, Hispanic and other minorities finally puts the NFL in the same company with the NBA and Major League Baseball when they're graded out thru studies. It's still not enough but it is the ONLY way for things to get better.

The Rooney Rule is a token, that makes it look like minorities are not being totally overlooked thru the hiring process. So Unless a Latin, or Black person/s buys an NFL franchise, the only way is to keep the rule in tact and for minorities to keep working their ways up the ladders of these franchises.