The year is 2022. The month, February. Two days ago, the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals punched their tickets to Super Bowl LVI. Matt Eberflus has just been hired as the Bears head coach, and Nathaniel Hackett has been snatched up by Denver.
Then, a surprising story breaks: Brian Flores is suing the NFL for racial discrimination. The lawsuit includes various accusations of wrongdoing, including a claim that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered to pay Flores to intentionally lose games. However, the most headline-grabbing aspect is Flores’ challenge to the ‘Rooney Rule’ — a policy introduced in 2003 by then-Steelers owner Dan Rooney to promote fair opportunities for minority head coaching candidates.
Today, the rule states that teams must interview at least two external candidates who identify as racial minorities or female for any GM or head coaching opening. Theoretically, this should help the league progress from its current state, where the majority of head coaches are white despite minorities making up more than 70% of the player base.
Unfortunately, the Rooney Rule has not experienced much success. Now, there’s a league-wide hiring culture where minorities are only interviewed to satisfy requirements, and are often not taken seriously as candidates.
This issue was brought to light in the Flores lawsuit. In the filing, the current Vikings defensive coordinator revealed that the New York Giants brought him in for an interview three days after deciding to hire Brian Daboll, a white man, as head coach.
Recently, the New England Patriots came under similar fire for interviewing coaches Byron Leftwich and Pep Hamilton for their top job. While both candidates have been successful — Leftwich was a hot name after leading the Buccaneers to a Super Bowl as offensive coordinator — it remains true that neither has been employed in the NFL for years. We needn’t kid ourselves here. Mike Vrabel, hired earlier this month, was the obvious choice from the moment the Patriots decided to move on from Jerod Mayo despite having one of the league’s worst rosters and a rookie quarterback. The fact they interviewed exactly two Black candidates isn’t a coincidence but a glaring example of why the Rooney Rule is essentially useless.
When these minority candidates do get hired, they are often held to a higher standard. According to USA Today, since 2003 only 9.7% of white coaches have been fired after their first season. For Black coaches, that number is 30.8%.
If the rule is decidedly ineffective in promoting fair hiring, and even sets minority candidates up for failure, why does it still exist? To me, it’s because a real solution takes a lot more effort than the league is willing to expend.
The issue isn’t what’s going on at the top of these organizations, but rather at the bottom. According to a study at George Washington University that looked at coaching data from 1985 to 2015, coaches of color were as likely to be promoted to head coach as their white counterparts, but only half as likely to be promoted to coordinator, the role below.
To foster diversity and align coaching and management with the player base, the NFL must move beyond the Rooney Rule’s top-down approach and adopt a grassroots diversity strategy. By prioritizing opportunities for people of color in developmental roles, the league will not only naturally become more diverse, but these individuals will subsequently be better prepared and qualified to be seriously considered for top-level roles.
Or, the NFL can keep the flawed system it has now. It’s the football equivalent of trickle-down economics, and we all know how that’s going.
