The NFL's Minority Coach Rule

[Dutch]

If a team interviews a woman, will that count as a minority? How about a Jewish person? Or a guy that still likes comic books at 45? What do they mean by minority? Or do they just mean, black guys?

[Philliesfan980]

I think it can be any non-white (I think thats what a minority is defined as, we can debate it until the cows come home though).

[robbgmaier]

A real hot chick for an NFL head coach would be so cool.

[Vikings13]

I think the rule means any minority, but in practice it's only going to be black men, as that's the only real minority present in the coaching pool...

[Wasabiak]

Originally posted by robbgmaier
A real hot chick for an NFL head coach would be so cool.

I think the NFL needs to adopt a rule where only hot chicks can be head coaches. And they have to wear bikinis on the sideline, regardless of the weather.

[Ragone]

you know.. alot of the black coachs turned down interviews in detroit.. only because they knew it would be token interviews to hit the quota..

this brings us back to affirmative action.. which in itself is racist..
Color of skin shouldn't matter.. if your the most qualified your hired.. not "well.. Jimbo is the most qualified for the job.. and he's white.. but James is black and we need to hit our aa quota.. hire James"

But i digress..

[miami_fan]

Originally posted by Wasabiak
I think the NFL needs to adopt a rule where only hot chicks can be head coaches. And they have to wear bikinis on the sideline, regardless of the weather.

How quickly would they vote for a new outdoor stadium in Minnesota?!:p

[Subby]

They wouldn't need this rule if black assistant coaches weren't systematically shut out of the head coach hiring process year after year...

The owners and their general managers brought this horrible rule upon themselves...

[miami_fan]

Originally posted by Ragone
you know.. alot of the black coachs turned down interviews in detroit.. only because they knew it would be token interviews to hit the quota..

this brings us back to affirmative action.. which in itself is racist..
Color of skin shouldn't matter.. if your the most qualified your hired.. not "well.. Jimbo is the most qualified for the job.. and he's white.. but James is black and we need to hit our aa quota.. hire James"

But i digress..

Color of skin should not matter but........:rolleyes: That said the fact that the NFL has a minority rule is embarassing in and of itself. I do not like the fact of NFL owners being forced to interview/hire minorities. But the facts are there are no real "qualifications" to being a head coach in the NFL. Yes you have to coach football but that is it. Do you need to be a offensive or defensive coordinator in the pros or can you be one in college? What if you are a D-1 AA head coach? Would that person be a good head coach? Man or woman? What if you coached for a great head coach? Does that mean that you are going to be a great head coach too? Owners have different qualification for their coaches.Some want a quiet guy, others want a big mouth. Some are hiring for a young team while others are hiring for a veteran team. I think most of the controversy with the hiring practices would subside if teams would do a better job explaining why coaches are hired. Jerry Jones was clear when he hired Parcells. He wanted an established successful NFL coach. No arguement for relatively sane people. But when a guy like Marty Mornhinweg over other first time coaches or a guy like Dennis Erickson get a second job after his past performance, questions will be and should be asked

I will also add Dave Wannstedt to the second job category!:mad:

[Dutch]

They wouldn't need this rule if black assistant coaches weren't systematically shut out of the head coach hiring process year after year...

The owners and their general managers brought this horrible rule upon themselves...

I think it just seems silly and I would be very dissappointed the first time I hear Lovie Smith being called a Quota Coach.

[Crapshoot]

Personally,
I think the end result is more detrimental for minorities- Lovie Smith or Romeo Cremel or Ted Cotrell if/when hired, will always have the stigma of being "forced" hires, or forced interviews, no matter how qualified they are. Affirmative Action is an inane process that hurts everyone involved - Its basically being couched as "justifiable racism."

[Solecismic]

Weird, isn't it? These rules are being made by old white people who know damn well they climbed a ladder black people weren't allowed to do anything but hold for them.

Justifiably, they feel guilty. And it's great they want to level the playing field for the future.

But this is the right rule at the wrong time. Today's marketplace is more competitive. If you turn your back on a good black coach, odds are fairly decent he's going to get hired by your rival and take special pleasure in beating your team.

The rulemakers don't see how the market is changed, and that they are only harming the people they seek to help. The Lovie Smiths and the Romeo Cremels are going to get opportunities because they're qualified, period. It's a shame that when they get those jobs, many will see them as hired only because of a racist rule.

It does seem to make the media happy, though. At the expense of young, qualified white coaches, who, when they are hired, face national media outrage before they've even lost a game.

[miami_fan]

I guess it is a no-win situtation. Hire a white guy, it is discrimination. Hire a non-white guy, it is reverse discrimination

[Crapshoot]

Originally posted by Solecismic
Weird, isn't it? These rules are being made by old white people who know damn well they climbed a ladder black people weren't allowed to do anything but hold for them.

Justifiably, they feel guilty. And it's great they want to level the playing field for the future.

But this is the right rule at the wrong time. Today's marketplace is more competitive. If you turn your back on a good black coach, odds are fairly decent he's going to get hired by your rival and take special pleasure in beating your team.

The rulemakers don't see how the market is changed, and that they are only harming the people they seek to help. The Lovie Smiths and the Romeo Cremels are going to get opportunities because they're qualified, period. It's a shame that when they get those jobs, many will see them as hired only because of a racist rule.

It does seem to make the media happy, though. At the expense of young, qualified white coaches, who, when they are hired, face national media outrage before they've even lost a game.

While the first part bothers me to some extent, I think the idea's are generally dead on here - and its a shame that its perpetuated by idiots like Jesse Jackson, who last year wanted to boycott Alabama for hiring Mike Shula over Slyvester Croom- they represent no one but their own interests, and it bothers me when Jackson claims to be the representative of Black America - and I find it incredibly condescending of the media to accept it as such.

Personally, Im still screaming at my 49ers for hiring a retread like Ericson over someone like Cottrell or Jim Mora Jr... :D

[Chappy]

Give it 10 years or so when all the old school front office fogies are dead or locked up in a home for the senile and hopefully it won't be an issue anymore.......

[The Afoci]

What I find odd is that the rule doesn't extend to the front office positions which are lacking minorities as well.

[albionmoonlight]

To get back to the initial question--I think that the rule, in practice, applies only to black men because (the thinking goes) the players in the league are mostly black, so it is unfair not to have black representation in the coaching ranks as well.

I think that Solecismic makes a great point about the ultra-competitive marketplace making the rule not necessary these days.

[clintl]

Originally posted by Aadik

Personally, Im still screaming at my 49ers for hiring a retread like Ericson over someone like Cottrell or Jim Mora Jr... :D

Jeff Tedford is the guy the 49ers should have hired, and I don't they even considered him. And if he's still available, that's who they hire when they fire Erickson in a season or two.

As far as the rule for interviewing minorities is concerned, I don't think it's such a bad rule. The rule doesn't say you have to hire a minority, and so far, I don't think that any of the minority coaches hired have been viewed as so-called "quota coaches". Every one of them has had solid qualifications. All this rule does is guarantee minorities access to the hiring process, and I don't see anything wrong with that.

[Bonegavel]

Also, are there any black owners?

[judicial clerk]

I do not like quotas, but I do want the NFL to be sensitive to racism in its member organizations.

Racism still pervades our society, but profiteers like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson (Lately) make the situation worse by playing to peoples prejudices.

[Dutch]

Also, are there any black owners?

I'm pretty sure the idea of America and freedom is to make sure everybody has an equal chance, not an equal share.

If there is a black guy out there with the cash and passes the NFL's strict guidlines of owning an NFL team, I don't think the NFL would bar him because of race. I just don't see where there is any proof or logic behind why they would.

[Crapshoot]

I think Dutch is dead on- the currency is cash, not race...

[Bonegavel]

Originally posted by Dutch
I'm pretty sure the idea of America and freedom is to make sure everybody has an equal chance, not an equal share.

If there is a black guy out there with the cash and passes the NFL's strict guidlines of owning an NFL team, I don't think the NFL would bar him because of race. I just don't see where there is any proof or logic behind why they would.

My point wasn't to say that they would bar a black man from owning a team. I was suggesting, in conjuntion with the comment on the front offices, that they should apply their racial quotas to all aspects of the League. Why are they only worried about Head Coaches?

When teams are up for sale, they should make sure that a certain amount of Blacks are courted and the NFL should fine itself if this doesn't happen.

Basically, I think the whole thing is wrong because where does this end? You know, there aren't enough black trainers. There aren't enough black referees. There aren't enough black special team coaches. In addition, what about other minorities?

I think it is safe to say that this rule is meant for BLACK coaches and not minorities in general as they are under represented in all of football completely. How many asians are in the game? Latinos? Somoans? Arabs? Eskimos?

[Young Drachma]

Originally posted by Solecismic
Weird, isn't it? These rules are being made by old white people who know damn well they climbed a ladder black people weren't allowed to do anything but hold for them.

Justifiably, they feel guilty. And it's great they want to level the playing field for the future.

But this is the right rule at the wrong time. Today's marketplace is more competitive. If you turn your back on a good black coach, odds are fairly decent he's going to get hired by your rival and take special pleasure in beating your team.
.

Not true, really. I mean, Marvin Lewis had to wait forever to get a job. Everyone knew the guy was a good coach, yet he got passed over for the Detroit job the first time and again for the Buffalo job. We won't talk about the whole Tampa Bay debacle.

But I suspect Rich McKay will rectify that with his hire in Atlanta.

No one expects qualified white candidates will be passed over, because despite what people think, there are plenty of studies to show that whites in positions of power are hyper-sensitive to the notion that affirmative action and government preference are against whites and thus, will give someone a chance over someone else (regardless of race) that might be more qualified.

Two books address the issues:

Race and the Invisible Hand:How White Networks Exclude Black Men from Blue-Collar Jobs (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=0520239512&itm=1)

While I hardly agree with her conclusion - namely, that government intervention should intefere with private hiring, etc. - the findings of the study are very interesting, albeit acute in its focus.

Whitewashing Race: The myth of a color-blind society (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/0520237064/mockerybird/ref%3Dnosim/103-0119483-0874207)

I think this book does a great job of presenting the foundation of how the problem of race still exists and presents pragmatic ideas - however controversial - that are far better, in my view, than maintaining the status quo.

In both instances, I look forward to seeing well-constructed refutations of these books and their findings from conservative pundits who claim to truly want to provide equality. (Note: Incidentially, I consider myself to be a conservative)

That said, I don't necessarily see anything wrong with the idea that people want to protect what they have traditionally benefitted from, even at the detrement of others.

But to cloak that in the guise of "equal rights" is b.s. to me.

That said, I don't support the NFL's minority hiring policy, but when the Commissioner comes out and says, "Look, this needs to happen" and teams ignore his call, then he has a compelling interest to do something about it.

[Young Drachma]

Originally posted by Bonegavel

I think it is safe to say that this rule is meant for BLACK coaches and not minorities in general as they are under represented in all of football completely.


I think its an issue because blacks make up something like 70% of the NFL players.

I don't think anyone is asking for proportional representation, but I think its interesting that basketball has not had the problems that other sports have had in terms of hiring minorities to front office and coaching positions.

Its almost not an issue anymore, where flagship programs like Michigan (okay, used to be), Kentucky, Indiana and others have black coaches and no one bats an eye really.

I often criticized black players in the NBA for not making a bigger point about wanting ownership. For example, I thought it was crazy that Michael Jordan - arguably the guy who made the NBA owners (all of them) lots of money over the years had to give up his partial ownership stake in the Wizards (and Capitals) when he decided to come back and play.

While in the NHL, Mario Lemieux is still the owner of the (struggling) Penguins and the only he doesn't do is represent the team in meetings and such, but he didn't have to give up ownership.

I know the sports are different, but its interesting that no one made that connection in the so-called sympathetic media that wants to see minorities success or whatever.