Quote:
Originally Posted by rjolley
Like Marcus Spears said yesterday, and I'm sure others have said before, the problem isn't the Rooney Rule. The problem is that it exists. That owners think that the best candidate has to be of a certain race, like that automatically makes them a good leader and coach or GM. Until that mindset starts to adjust, any rule put into place will have issues.
And the comparisons with how Tomlin, Smith, and other Black coaches have done misses the point too. Just because a Black coach has done well doesn't mean others can do well. It means that people with his experience can do well. If a coordinator who has 10-15 years of experience, is organized, and is a proven teacher has proven to be a good head coach, then those types of qualifications should be considered at regardless of race.
Would love to see the process move towards that.
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Tomlin was a 34-year old that had one-year experience as an NFL coordinator and four-years as a position coach. He had the opportunity to interview and blew them away and Whisenhunt ended up with another HC job in Arizona. Lovie had only been a coordinator for three seasons and was in his early 40's. I would imagine Raheem Morris in Tampa Bay must have been another guy that 'wowed' management in interviews, because he had very limited experience as a coordinator and was like 32-years old.
Some guys just have the "it" factor, are dynamic personalities, and interview well. Successful white coaches like McVay, Vrabel, LaFleur, Zac Taylor, and a bunch of other guys had less than 3 or 4 years as coordinators in the NFL and were hired at young ages, but have all seemed well equipped as head coaches. That suggests, to me, that experience is actually not that high on the list of characteristics that make for a successful HC in the NFL.
I don't know what the answer is, but it doesn't make sense that a league with more than 50% black players only has one black head coach. It's hard for me to think it is not a matter of access to those folks and that a lot of that is simply that ex-players have had fewer opportunities to get into coaching and coordinator roles and/or are given fewer interviews. I do think the Rooney Rule has probably helped some (I'm not sure how it could have hurt with access, at least) and has opened some doors.