A good idea but a load of politically correct nonsense
By the same token, you might be strangely reassured to discover that — just like the Manchester United striker after whom it wasn’t named — the rule is perennially divisive, a source of ongoing controversy which forces critics and advocates alike to hop across the hot coals of its idealistic aims and real-world results.
The NFL brought in the ‘Rooney Rule’ in 2003 in order to compel teams to interview black candidates for coaching positions.
It takes its name from the US ambassador to Ireland, Dan Rooney who spends his spare time as chairman and co-owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Rooney family, linked with the Steelers since the team’s 1933 formation, have a proud history of inclusion and equality of opportunity in its organisation. And Dan, the almost universally popular son of Steelers founder Art, was instrumental in pushing through a rule that was aimed at realigning a sport mired in conservatism, where the ratio of black players to white does not in any way match the ratio of black coaches to white.
In reality, it has led to discontent among black head coaching hopefuls who often find themselves interviewed by General Managers whose sole intention is to appease the league’s lawmakers.
Earlier this month, the Dallas Cowboys were keen to promote their caretaker coach, Jason Garrett, who had graduated from Wade Philips’ staff to take on the main role after Philips’ was fired in early November.
One formality needed to be addressed, however, and it fell to the Cowboys’ wide receivers coach Ray Sherman to go through the demeaning experience of being ‘interviewed’ for his future boss’ job.
Even more humiliating has been the sight of the New York Giants defensive coordinator Perry Fewell who last week actively sought out a head coaching job. He interviewed for vacant roles at the Carolina Panthers, the Cleveland Browns and the Denver Broncos.
But that knot in his stomach told him that he was little more than a token Rooney interviewee and a Hail Mary play would be necessary if this was going to be his breakthrough. All three teams had either made their choices or Fewell wasn’t a factor — he needn’t have bothered making the trips.
Like all the best debates, it’s a minefield but it has been brought into particular focus this week with the celebration of Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday which fell on Saturday but was celebrated nationally on Monday.
After the Oakland Raiders moved late on Monday night to promote Hue Jackson, his appointment brought the figure to eight out of 32 head coaches who are black. And with Super Bowl XLV just three Sundays away, it’s a 50:50 ratio among the four teams still standing.
One of the two black coaches left in contention, Steelers supremo Mike Tomlin, has tasted Super Bowl success before and while he wasn’t the first black coach to win at the big show, he remains the youngest to have done so, breaking down another, less controversial barrier in the process.
Tomlin will need to draw on all his precociousness to overcome the New York Jets in Sunday evening’s AFC Conference game, essentially a semi-final en route to the Super Bowl. On the other side of the draw, the NFC showdown pits Lovie Smith’s Chicago Bears against the Green Bay Packers.
Then there’s Raheem Morris. Martin Luther King Day was an appropriate day to celebrate completing his first year as Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach. The 33-year-old who grew up on the raw streets of Irvington, New Jersey is now the youngest coach in the league and has just managed to extricate a 10-6 winning season out of a team with the lowest playing budget in the game.
Compared to the way things were, it’s promising but far from perfect. And there’s no way of saying that the Rooney Rule has made any of it possible. Even if it did, I wouldn’t want to be the one to suggest to Raheem Morris or Mike Tomlin that the NFL’s version of Affirmative Action helped them climb the ladder.
American Football is nowhere near as simplistic as all that.
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