NFL Changing Rooney Rule?
Is the NFL changing the Rooney rule?
Multiple coaching vacancies opened up towards the end of last season. Despite that, not a single one was filled with the hiring of a black coach.
Of all the people that were hired, Ron Rivera was the only non-white candidate selected.
As such, many fans of the NFL have called on the league to revamp the Rooney Rule to make more effective.
The Rooney Rule was put in place to ensure that minority candidates had the opportunity to interview for openings. That said, it has simply become simply a box for organizations to check before hiring white coaches.
On Wednesday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell acknowledged that changes made need to be made.
“Clearly, we are not where we want to be on this level,” Goodell said.
“We have a lot of work that’s gone into not only the Rooney Rule but our policies overall. It’s clear we need to change and do something different.”
Goodell says “it’s clear we need to change and do something different” with the Rooney Rule, which has grown to be ineffective in the league’s hiring cycles of the last few years. Added changes are already in the works.
— Nick Shook (@TheNickShook) January 29, 2020
And that “something different” may happen soon.
“There’s no reason to expect we’re going to have a different outcome next year without those kinds of changes and we’ve already begun engaging in those changes.
“Not just with our diversity committee, not just with the Fritz Pollard Alliance, but others. And trying to figure out what steps we could take next that would lead to better outcomes,” he continued.
“It’s clear we’re all committed to doing that, and we have to make those changes. We will have a series of meetings which we’ve already scheduled over the next month to get that kind of dialogue going, to continue the dialogue to try to determine what are the solutions so we can have those better outcomes.”
Will the NFL opt to revamp the Rooney Rule to make more effective during the offseason? Time will tell.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
