Rooney Rule runs its course: This year’s coaching cycle further exposes flaws in NFL rule meant for equity

The NFL installed the Rooney Rule in 2003 with the best of intentions behind it. Within the last few years, the league has tweaked it multiple times to strengthen the instrument known across sports for giving a fair and equitable shake to minority candidates in top positions.

It gives me no pleasure in saying this, but it is time for the league to shelve the Rooney Rule. Its value has run its course as teams have found ways to undermine and skirt its intentions, ultimately doing more harm to qualified candidates than the good for which it had been intended.

No, this is not in response to the rollbacks of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, of which many are taking place across the nation. In fact, the league and commissioner Roger Goodell are so committed to promoting diversity that I believe they will double down on the Rooney Rule this offseason — perhaps as soon as Goodell’s state of the union address during Super Bowl week.

It would be a valiant effort by Goodell and the league — one that would be misguided and wrong.

Most head-coaching jobs filled this cycle were practically cinched with virtual interviews, no matter the candidate’s skin color. Needing to fly in two Black or brown men just for the team to cross the finish line with their candidate of choice has been little more than an administrative duty. The NFL saw half of its coaching vacancies last year filled by minority candidates. As of Friday, there are seven men of color who occupy head-coaching roles, though it’s unclear — and frankly irrelevant — how many of them directly benefited from the Rooney Rule.

On Thursday, the Jacksonville Jaguars brought Patrick Graham in for an interview. The Yale-educated Graham began his coaching career more than two decades ago at Wagner College (in the second subdivision of NCAA football) and has methodically climbed the ladder to win a Super Bowl with the Patriots, earn multiple NFL defensive coordinator jobs and be considered a viable head-coaching candidate.

While Graham interviewed for the Jaguars job, the team was simultaneously hammering out the details of a deal to make Liam Coen its next coach. Robert Saleh, the first Lebanese-American head coach in NFL history, had already interviewed there in person and decided not to board the plane for what would be a useless second interview.

No matter, though. The Jaguars had complied with the Rooney Rule as of Thursday night and were free to make Coen their next coach.  

This does not make Shad Khan — a Pakistani American who is the first person of color to be the majority owner of an NFL team — racist. Not in the slightest. However, it does means he and his organization had to perform a charade Thursday at the expense of a good man in Patrick Graham. And for what benefit?

In 2021, the league expanded the Rooney Rule to require teams with a vacant head coach or general manager position to interview two external candidates, in person, who are people of color. The following year, the NFL went further to include women as part of the “minority candidate” definition. It also required teams to interview two external minority candidates for coordinator positions as well.

Coaches and agents have bemoaned this rule for the last few years. I know of at least one head coach who knew the person he was promoting on staff to a coordinator position but had to interview two minority candidates to fulfill the rule. The person being promoted had earned it, and I believe most reasonable people would have agreed with that. So the coach told agents of his intentions, but he promised he would give a rigorous interview to their clients so they got good practice for their next opportunities. The head coach handling it that way — upfront and honest with his intensions — is deserving of respect.

No team has used the Rooney Rule as a box-check more than the New England Patriots. Last spring, they brought in two minority candidates before promoting Eliot Wolf to the de facto general manager position. Earlier this month, they flew in Byron Leftwich and Pep Hamilton for interviews when the entire league knew they were hiring Mike Vrabel as their head coach.

Again, both Wolf and Vrabel earned their jobs. But no one can construe what the Patriots did as resembling a true “search.”

The Bears hired Ben Johnson on Monday without even interviewing him in person. Bears president Kevin Warren, who is Black, has filled out a senior staff that is perhaps the most diverse in the entire NFL. General manager Ryan Poles is Black. For the final month of the season, the Bears had Black men at head coach, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator.

But they had to interview one more person of color the day before hiring Johnson so they could abide by NFL rules and move forward as an organization.

The Jets just hired Aaron Glenn to be their next head coach, making him the third person of color hired by the team in that role since 2015. He was the second and final minority interviewed in-person for the job after two-time NFL Coach of the Year Ron Rivera took an in-person interview on Jan. 2.

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As the Cowboys appear to be hovering over Brian Schottenheimer as their next head coach, they had Saleh and Leslie Frazier in town in the past week for interviews. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones also talked to Deion Sanders about the job, though there was never a formal interview.

Of the seven head-coaching vacancies this cycle, five teams have interviewed Rivera and/or Saleh in person to help satisfy the Rooney Rule, according to my sources and research.

The Saints are beginning their in-person interviews Friday after a once-in-a-century snowstorm crippled the area earlier in the week. New Orleans, which had Glenn as its top candidate, could have thrown a Hail Mary and petitioned the NFL for a hardship waiver. Something along the lines of, “We’re trapped in New Orleans and our top candidate — a Black man — could take the Jets job before we can get to him. Can we get around these in-person rules and be allowed to hire Glenn based on virtual interviews?”

The Saints didn’t try that, and it’s unclear whether an attempt with the league would have even been successful. A source said it would have taken “extreme circumstances” for the league to consider any rules circumvention. Still, I credit Mickey Loomis and his group in New Orleans for remaining steadfast to their process, even if it may have cost them their top guy.

Within the past year, I received a call from a coach who had been requested for a head-coach interview. He asked whether I thought he was getting “Rooney’d,” which has unfortunately been added to the hiring process lexicon in recent years. I told him I couldn’t know the heart and intentions of the leadership of the team, but the information available led me to believe there was a high probability his candidacy was based on the team needing to check the box.

He planned on turning down the offer, but then spoke to team ownership, who convinced him it was a real interview. A few days later, it became clear the interview was, in fact, a box check.

Qualified candidates from diverse backgrounds must constantly wonder whether they are getting Rooney’d. Perhaps sadder, sometimes they know that is the case yet believe they are so uniquely talented that they can convince the decision-makers to change their minds. All they need is this one opportunity, after all.

Instead, these candidates get “other’d.” Because of the well-known rule requiring two external minorities interview, when one does, he publicly counts as halfway to the goal. Interviewing people of color has become a time-keeping device: We know how close or far away a team is from making a decision based off what racial background just walked through the door.

The NFL doesn’t want this. The league produces dozens of pages of literature on equitable hiring practices. Smart, well-intentioned individuals who are full-time league employees and consultants all collaborate on these guidelines.

They have tried it all, and it’s not working. By and large, the teams are going to hire the person they want to hire, and everything else is just a speed bump. 

I was loath to write a column bashing what was a revolutionary tool without an alternative. The league doesn’t want to suspend its efforts to increase diversity, and it should absolutely stay in the fight. 

However, teams should be able to conduct the interview process how they wish, and with the benefit of league transparency, the public will be able to see who is interviewed and when they are interviewed.

But it is past time to abolish the Rooney Rule before it does even more harm than its intended good.