Old Thread on Hiring Minority Coaches in the NFL Bumped

I think the rule is useless for the NFL and had little to do with the hiring of Tomlin, but they need something similar or more agressive for NCAA football.

The ratio there is a freaking joke. Although as a coog, I don't mind racism of other schools working in my favor yet again.

 

I think the rule has a lot to do with why there are so many minority coaches in the NFL. But with the Steelers in particular, I doubt it had much effect on hiring Tomlin. The nature of the NFL (Just Win) is such that they could probably go ahead and remove the Rooney Rule and minorities would continue getting opportunities. But maybe if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I grew up in Indiana but I became a Steelers fan the year before they drafted Franco Harris.

The lack of minority head coaches in the college football ranks is an indictment of NCAA football. For it to persist this long with no apparent change coming soon just amazes me. I imagine at some point they will institute measures to jumpstart things.

 

What proportion of NFL coaches need to be AA's before everything is hunkydoree? 15% -- similar to the general population? 80% -- similar to the % of players in the league? The skill sets for playing and coaching are radically different. If they weren't then Lawrence Taylor would be the best defensive coach of all time. We know that's a ridiculous premise.

 

Mike Tomlin wasn't even a Rooney Rule candidate. The Steelers met the requirement when they interviewed Ron Rivera who is Hispanic. They heard about Tomlin, called him in, were impressed with his interview and hired him.

Should be no surprise that the team that pushed for the rule found a minority coach not because they had to interview one or were trying to hire a minority, but because they do business the right way to begin with. It allowed them to not miss out on finding the right coach for the team.

I don't know many of the NFL owners, so I don't know if they are "good ole' boy types." I think the bigger problem is in college football, especially in the south.

So you are saying that black people don't have the ability to be good coaches?

If you look at the background of coaches, they all come from different places in the football world. Some were good or great players in the NFL, some were coaches from highschool and up and made it to the pros, some were mediocre players who made better coaches, etc, etc. So what point are you trying to make by saying that Lawrence Taylor wouldn't make a terrible coach?

The Rooney Rule isn't a quota, so why are you asking for people to set a quota on how many black coaches there needs to be?

 

No, that's absurd. Some are, some aren't. But the real push behind the Rooney Rule is to increase minority hires. What's no doubt behind that objective is the obvious observation that there are a lot of black players, but few black coaches. If you dig a little deeper, you would conclude that the two wouldn't necessarily coorelate. Further, it's absurd to accuse the same owners, who are more than happy to pay millions to black athletes, of being racist in their hiring practices for coaches.

 

that rule is a joke, anyone that says otherwise is just dumb

 

if wisenhut took hisn', and tomlin took yourn' no doubt, the result would've been the same this year.

 

The coaching skill sets are far more subjective than the playing skill sets so your argument is terrible. Furthermore, if it were simply skill sets that were the determinant factor in hiring coaches then why are there no women coaches? The very astute non-prejudiced NFL owners would never hire a man over a woman with a better skill set level according to you and yet there isn't a single female coach in all of the NFL. If women have the skill level and aptitude to run major corporations then they certainly have the skill level and aptitude to coach a football team. And don't even for a second insinuate that women wouldn't want the opportunity to coach an NFL team.

DEFEND YOURSELF

 

I wish people don't talk about things they don't know about (A lil Woody Paige action there). The Rooney rule is ment to influence teams to hire minority head coaches but does not forces them to. The rules basically has a requirment that minority canidates should be interviewed. The reason for the increase in black coaches being hired is because they are being let in the door for interview and are learning what they nedd to improve on to become a coach.

 

The objective behind the rule is to increase the number of black coaches being hired. But the rule doesn't exist because they want to fill quotas. They just got tired of black coaches never even getting a chance to be interviewed.

Yeah, because there's never been a case where a businessman was unwilling to put a black person in a position of authority.

 

I don't think the Rooney Rules is necessarily enforced to increase minority hiring but it is in place to give more minorities a chance at a head coaching spot instead of just coordinator positions. The rule doesn't state you must hire a minority or certain percentage of minorities just interview one for a head coaching vacancy.

There are only 6 African-American head coaches in the NFL, which translates to about 19%. All six of those coaches took the job after the Rooney rule was instated and half of them replaced jobs that opened up last year.

I think comparing the owners paying players millions to the hiring of coaches does not make much sense. I'm not saying that any of the owners of NFL franchises are racist but I could see a scenario where one could think minorities are good enough to play for them but not good enough to run the team.

 

That may be true as well but still many owners and GMs are willing to put on an old or used tire instead of a brand new one. Every division in the NFL except the South divisions, include a head coach that has held the same position with another NFL team. Then again that might prove your point as only the East divisions are the only ones with 50% of their coaching spots like that.

 

UT (err Mack Brown) was supposedly pushing for Notre Dame OC (and former Texas assistant) Michael Haywood, who is black, to be UH's next head coach. I'm glad we told them to screw off and hired Kevin Sumlin, Bob Stoops' protege. btw, Haywood lost playcalling authority at Notre Dame last year...he is now Miami, OH's head coach.

 

Team owners pay athletes millions of dollars because of labor laws, collective bargaining and market forces; little or no choice about it.

Unless it's because the owners assume blacks are good at running, jumping and physical aggression; but not at planning, strategy or leadership.