Rooney Rule

One sociological topic that was addressed in detail was the topic of racial discrimination.  Racial discrimination will take place no matter what happens, but there are many organizations and groups fighting to make racial injustice a thing of the past.  The National Football League (NFL) implemented a rule in an effort to eliminate an unbalanced ratio of minorities and whites in high-profile positions.

The Rooney Rule was created by the NFL in 2003 and requires a team to interview minority candidates for head coaching positions, as well as front-office jobs within the organization.  The majority of the cases have to do with the hiring of head coaches.  This rule has created many opportunities for minority coaches, as rates have climbed dramatically since the implication of the rule.  Mike Tomlin, an African American coach, was hired by the Pittsburgh Steelers and soon led them to a Super Bowl title.  Ironically, the Rooney Rule is named after Dan Rooney, the owner and chairman of the Steelers.

Unfortunately, there have been a few cases in which the Rooney Rule has been implicated against the stated ideals.  In 2003 the Detroit Lions were fined for failing to interview a minority candidate after their previous coach was fired, and Steve Mariucci, a white coach, was immediately hired.  The Lions appealed their fine after saying that they attempted to interview African American coaches; however, they declined the interviews in part because the hiring of Mariucci was inevitable.  In a more recent case, the New Orleans Saints were looking for an interim coach to replace Sean Payton, who was suspended for the 2012-2013 season.  Payton's choice for his replacement was his mentor, Bill Parcells.  Parcells is a Hall of Fame coach with a long legacy in the NFL.  However, this potential hiring caused some uproar in regards to complying with the Rooney Rule in the same way as the Lions case.

There have been cases in which the Rooney Rule has been used in the way it was intended to be and in which the spirit of the rule has been challenged.  In my person opinion, I believe this is a great rule but their needs to be accountability for those who fail to abide by the rules in the correct manner.  There have been countless cases of success for an organization after hiring a minority coach and the rate keeps going up.  The teams that fail to abide by the correct means of the rule have compromised the integrity of the rule and have unfairly not given a minority candidate an opportunity to be a head coach, even if he is highly qualified.  The league needs to create stricter guidelines on this rule because I am a firm believer that minority candidates have the exact same possibility for success as a white coach.