The NFL has decided to expand the Rooney Rule to include the hiring of quarterback coaches.
The rule, which was passed in 2003, is supposed to incentivize NFL teams to interview and hire more minority coaches. However, the rule has come under fire lately after former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores decided to sue the league, his former team, and several other NFL teams for discrimination as he felt teams were using loopholes to avoid more inclusive hiring practices.
Flores felt as if he was unjustly fired from the Dolphins and wasn’t given a fair shake when he interviewed for the head coaching position with the Denver Broncos and the New York Giants.
While the lawsuit is still pending, all teams involved in this case have denied the allegations.
Before now, the Rooney Rule required teams to interview at least one minority candidate for any head coach or senior football operation position. Now, the league will require teams looking for a new quarterback coach to interview at least one minority candidate for that position too.
The Rooney Rule also includes female candidates.
Ultimately, the issue isn’t the rule itself but whether or not the league enforces it. If a team decides to create a workaround because they already know they want to hire a certain white coach, as the Raiders did with Jon Gruden, the NFL has to back that up with severe punishment.
After that incident, the league also revised the rule to mandate that teams interview candidates from outside their organizations and maintain complete records of the process that the league can request. It also requires that “final decision-makers” participate in the interviews for every candidate.
About Stacey Mickles
Stacey is a 1995 graduate of the University of Alabama who has previously worked for other publications such as Sportskeeda and Saturday Down South.