[HarlemHxC814]

http://espn.go.com/n...nsure-diversity

Quote

There has been plenty of turnover in coach and general manager positions in the NFL this offseason, but the league acknowledged Friday that teams can do better when it comes to hiring minorities.

NFL vice president of human resources Robert Gulliver said the league is looking at making adjustments to the Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview a minority before making a hire.

Of the eight new head coaches and seven general manager jobs that have been filled since the end of last offseason, none have gone to a minority. The Jets have yet to officially hire a new GM, though sources tell ESPN that it will be Seahawks executive John Idzik, who is also not a minority.

Mike Tomlin of the Steelers, Marvin Lewis of the Bengals and Leslie Frazier of the Vikings are the only black coaches among the 32 teams.

"While there has been full compliance with the interview requirements of the Rooney Rule and we wish the new head coaches and general managers much success, the hiring results this year have been unexpected and reflect a disappointing lack of diversity," Gulliver said. "The Rooney Rule has been a valuable tool in expanding diversity and inclusion in hiring practices, but there is more work to do, especially around increasing and strengthening the pipeline of diverse candidates for head coach and senior football executive positions.

"We have already started the process of developing a plan for additional steps that will better ensure more diversity and inclusion on a regular basis in our hiring results. We look forward to discussing these steps with our advisers to ensure that our employment, development and equal opportunity programs are both robust and successful."

[SecondHandJets]

That's hilarious. How many black guys were in the mix for jobs this offseason? One, Ross from the Giants who withdrew his name before half the processes were completed. What rule is the NFL going to impose? Is it going to force teams to drag Tony Dungy in for interviews? Or are teams going to be made to bring in Herm Edwards, Raheem Morris and Lovie Smith everytime there's a HC openning? Forcing diversity onto a field with a lack of candidates is pretty retarded.

[santana]

SecondHandJets, on 19 January 2013 - 11:57 AM, said:

That's hilarious. How many black guys were in the mix for jobs this offseason? One, Ross from the Giants who withdrew his name before half the processes were completed. What rule is the NFL going to impose? Is it going to force teams to drag Tony Dungy in for interviews? Or are teams going to be made to bring in Herm Edwards, Raheem Morris and Lovie Smith everytime there's a HC openning? Forcing diversity onto a field with a lack of candidates is pretty retarded.

Well maybe that's the point

Lack of candidates

[theanalogkid]

SecondHandJets, on 19 January 2013 - 12:57 PM, said:

<br />That's hilarious. How many black guys were in the mix for jobs this offseason? One, Ross from the Giants who withdrew his name before half the processes were completed. What rule is the NFL going to impose? Is it going to force teams to drag Tony Dungy in for interviews? Or are teams going to be made to bring in Herm Edwards, Raheem Morris and Lovie Smith everytime there's a HC openning? Forcing diversity onto a field with a lack of candidates is pretty retarded.<br />

<br /><br /><br />

If they do that, there should be a push to force every team to have 1 white running back, wide receiver, cornerback, safety, etc. There's clearly not enough diversity on team's rosters.

[Mr_Jet]

theanalogkid, on 20 January 2013 - 01:04 PM, said:

<br /><br /><br />

If they do that, there should be a push to force every team to have 1 white running back, wide receiver, cornerback, safety, etc. There's clearly not enough diversity on team's rosters.

If they do that they should force 16 of the 32 NFL franchise owners to sell their teams to a black person. There's clearly not enough diversity in NFL ownership.

[azjetfan]

Not to mention the cheerleaders are all Women. Thats sexest. How about all the fans in the stadium. Are they going to only sell a % of tickets to minorities?

But on a serious side... where there any guys who were hired who did not deserve the job? Or was there a minority candidate that was better. I dont know but it seems like this is a non story but since it is race related it is getting legs

[ROBJETS]

If the NFL wants adjust anything I wish they would get rid of the tuck rule. Stupidest rule in the game.

[HurricaneJet32]

The Rooney rule had it's heart in the right place...but it's becoming an embarrassment. It's ridiculous and insulting to bring in a guy like Ross to interview when you have absolutely no intention of offering him a job.

[Mr_Jet]

HurricaneJet32, on 21 January 2013 - 11:14 AM, said:

The Rooney rule had it's heart in the right place...but it's becoming an embarrassment. It's ridiculous and insulting to bring in a guy like Ross to interview when you have absolutely no intention of offering him a job.

That's the whole point of the rule. Not to hire minority candidates but to at least let minority candidates get their foot in the door. Ross may not have gotten a GM job this year but his name is out there as a candidate for future jobs. Some teams already know who they want to hire the second after they fire their old GM or HC. But because they have to interview minority candidates that helps those minority candidates be considered for legitimate jobs for franchises who don't know who they want to hire the second after they fire their old GM or HC. The problem is the pool of minority candidates to draw from appears to be smaller.

[SecondHandJets]

Mr_Jet, on 21 January 2013 - 12:37 PM, said:

The problem is the pool of minority candidates to draw from appears to be smaller.

Why do you think that is? Figure that most coaches, if not all, are former players. There's no shortage of minority players that have played in the league. Why is it that so few of them get into coaching? Or is it that a lot of them become position coaches and don't transition up the coaching ranks?

[Mr_Jet]

SecondHandJets, on 21 January 2013 - 02:40 PM, said:

Why do you think that is? Figure that most coaches, if not all, are former players. There's no shortage of minority players that have played in the league. Why is it that so few of them get into coaching? Or is it that a lot of them become position coaches and don't transition up the coaching ranks?

That's a good question. It's probably the latter of what you said. They're not moving up the ranks from position coaches. But it also seems that some of the older coaches that are in their 60s and 70s are staying around longer. Monte Kiffin is 72 and is coming back to the NFL next season. So that makes it harder for the younger coaches (of all races) to move up.

[SecondHandJets]

Mr_Jet, on 21 January 2013 - 03:21 PM, said:

That's a good question. It's probably the latter of what you said. They're not moving up the ranks from position coaches. But it also seems that some of the older coaches that are in their 60s and 70s are staying around longer. Monte Kiffin is 72 and is coming back to the NFL next season. So that makes it harder for the younger coaches (of all races) to move up.

It's interesting. It seems that more and more of the "high profile" players are looking for work in front of the camera. I hear that Ray Lewis has several commentator gigs lined up... like honestly, who better to enter the coaching profession than the most motivating player ever? I'm pretty sure that Ray Lewis can talk me into benching 500lbs in a matter of minutes, yet he's opting to work as a commenatator instead of a coach.

I think there may be economic factors at play here, think about it like this: the majority of current crop of players turned coaches retired in the late 90s or earlier, right? Well what has changed since that time? The TV market pretty much exploded with pregame shows in the last half decade. The NFL launched its own network. ESPN now has several channels. That's just the national shows. There are a myriad of local channels that cover local teams (everyone will tell you that Ray Lucas is the best analyst on SNY) and Carl Banks is terrific when it comes to the Giants. Then there's the college game. Don't forget, there's also satelite radio. I think that TV deals now offer comparable salaries to coaches and the job is probably 100 times easier (according to Terry Bradshaw). Damien Woody doesn't have to coach, because he's making a good living commentating. A lot of these guys aren't looking at coaching anymore probably because they have better opportunities. I think that's why you have guys like Monte Kiffin still around, he's better than the field because the field has been halved.

[HurricaneJet32]

SecondHandJets, on 22 January 2013 - 10:26 AM, said:

It's interesting. It seems that more and more of the "high profile" players are looking for work in front of the camera. I hear that Ray Lewis has several commentator gigs lined up... like honestly, who better to enter the coaching profession than the most motivating player ever? I'm pretty sure that Ray Lewis can talk me into benching 500lbs in a matter of minutes, yet he's opting to work as a commenatator instead of a coach.

I think there may be economic factors at play here, think about it like this: the majority of current crop of players turned coaches retired in the late 90s or earlier, right? Well what has changed since that time? The TV market pretty much exploded with pregame shows in the last half decade. The NFL launched its own network. ESPN now has several channels. That's just the national shows. There are a myriad of local channels that cover local teams (everyone will tell you that Ray Lucas is the best analyst on SNY) and Carl Banks is terrific when it comes to the Giants. Then there's the college game. Don't forget, there's also satelite radio. I think that TV deals now offer comparable salaries to coaches and the job is probably 100 times easier (according to Terry Bradshaw). Damien Woody doesn't have to coach, because he's making a good living commentating. A lot of these guys aren't looking at coaching anymore probably because they have better opportunities. I think that's why you have guys like Monte Kiffin still around, he's better than the field because the field has been halved.

I think that's very true...except for the part about Ray Lucas. He is borderline retarded...I mean that seriously...I think he might have a mental illness. He just gets so worked up and emotional and doesn't really say anything of substance.

One other thing, players get paid a lot more today. They don't need to get "real" jobs as much after playing. A part-time analyst job is all they need.

[Smedsthejet]

Mr_Jet, on 21 January 2013 - 05:37 PM, said:

That's the whole point of the rule. Not to hire minority candidates but to at least let minority candidates get their foot in the door. Ross may not have gotten a GM job this year but his name is out there as a candidate for future jobs. Some teams already know who they want to hire the second after they fire their old GM or HC. But because they have to interview minority candidates that helps those minority candidates be considered for legitimate jobs for franchises who don't know who they want to hire the second after they fire their old GM or HC. The problem is the pool of minority candidates to draw from appears to be smaller.

Agreed.

There's been plenty of talk in Britain over the past couple years about introducing a Rooney Rule for our football because currently I think it's just 3 of 92 Football League clubs (that's the Premier League plus the three divisions below) have managers who are minorities. Without its introduction, there'll be hardly any movement in that figure, and what I'd like to see is NFL coaches and executives who have benefited from the rule come over here and outline the way it has helped them. Unfortunately a number of pundits (try finding an English football journalist working for a daily national newspaper that isn't white!) have not grasped the true merits of such a rule and kicked up a stink about how positive discrimination is discriminatory in itself. What they fail to see is that allowing somebody to interview for a job would not only be positive for the candidate, but beneficial for the team giving them the chance too because it exposes them to potential employees they may not usually have considered.

The experience factor is crucial too. In soccer hardly any managers get appointed unless they have previous experience in a top job, meaning it's ridiculously hard to get your foot on the door. Instead you get a merry-go-round where vacancies are usually filled by somebody who has recently lost their job. One thing the NFL has going for it is that there is usually a clear career path along which successful coaches travel (ie going from a position or quality control coach, to coordinator, then to head coach). Young coaches have to be willing to be patient though in order to work their way up.

Regarding points made about how coaching may no longer be as attractive to ex-players, those arguments definitely have merit - salaries from media work are bound to be far greater than those of a position coach and involve far fewer working hours.

What I've always found interesting is the number of college players who after not making it at a professional level go on to start coaching careers way low down the NFL food chain or as graduate assistants at universities. Doing that likely requires support from parents or others because the starting salaries are so low, so those from a poor family background would be disadvantaged.