NFL to Expand Rooney Rule, Minority Offensive Coach a Must
The NFL is expanding the Rooney Rule, which governs that teams must interview minority candidates for positions like Head Coach, to require that all 32 NFL teams now must hire an offensive assistant who happens to be a minority.
From ESPN: “The coach can be “a female or a member of an ethnic or racial minority,” according to the policy adopted by NFL owners during their annual meeting, and will be paid from a league-wide fund. The coach must work closely with the head coach and the offensive staff, with the goal of increasing minority participation in the pool of offensive coaches that eventually produces the most sought-after candidates for head-coaching positions.”
NFL requiring every team to hire a minority or female offensive coach. https://t.co/1eJVR4qH9t
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) March 28, 2022
Earlier this year the NFL found itself under siege from a racial discrimination lawsuit filed in New York by former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Fores. Flores, who was terminated by the Dolphins following a 9-8 campaign, claimed in his lawsuit that the NFL and its teams have displayed racial bias in the hiring process of minorities. Flores also claimed that the Miami Dolphins tried to pay him to lose games. The Dolphins, New York Giants and Denver Broncos were named as defendants in the lawsuit.
Flores was not re-hired as a head coach during this year’s hiring cycle, although he did end up with the Pittsburgh Steelers as an assistant.
According to Pro Football Talk, two unnamed plaintiffs will join the Flores suit next month.
Currently the NFL has only two African American head coach in the Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin and Houston Texans Head Coach Lovie Smith. There are three other minority head coaches including the Jets’ Robert Saleh, who is of Middle Eastern descent; Washington’s Ron Rivera, who is Hispanic, and Miami’s Mike McDaniel, who claims he is biracial.
The amended Rooney Rule will also include women as minority hires. Both the Jets and Giants have hired female coaches to their staffs before this rule was implemented. The new rule reads as follows.
“Women and/or people of color can satisfy the requirement to interview two external minorities for top positions, including head coach. Women are not required to be interviewed, but they are now included in the fulfillment process. It is possible that a team could interview two white women for an open head coach position to satisfy the Rooney Rule, and then make a hire without ever interviewing a person of color. But from a practical standpoint, Rooney said, that is unlikely.”