Fritz Pollard Alliance counsel Cyrus Mehri "believes that the Rooney Rule is working well" in the NFL despite four more African-American coaches being fired on Monday, according to Ben Volin of the BOSTON GLOBE. Five of the eight coaches fired in total during the season were African-American, but Mehri said that the NFL "continues to make strides in hiring minority candidates." Mehri's group "advocates for diversity and equality in NFL coaching" and helped establish the Rooney Rule in '03. Following Black Monday the NFL now has just three minority head coaches and just one minority GM -- Dolphins GM & Exec VP/Football Operations Chris Grier, who "earned a promotion on Monday to oversee the team's entire football operation." Mehri said, "We see what happened this time as primarily the regular, rough-and-tumble part of the NFL business -- win or go home. But we remain very optimistic about where things are going forward." Volin notes minority coaches are "certainly being included in this year's interview cycle." While the NFL "probably won't have eight minority head coaches again" in '19, there "should be at least four or five, and hopefully seven or eight again" by '20. Mehri: "You have owners interviewing minority candidates for head coach and GM for every opening. So all we've ever asked for was a fair chance to compete, and let the best candidate be hired." Volin writes the lack of minority "offensive coordinators and quarterbacks coaches is glaring, and remains a significant obstacle for minorities to get head coaching jobs" (BOSTON GLOBE, 1/2). In DC, Mark Maske noted Fritz Pollard Alliance leaders have "said over the years they are focused on ensuring that the interviewing and hiring process is fair, not on attempting to dictate which coaches are hired and fired by teams" (WASHINGTON POST, 1/1).
WHERE DO WE GO NOW? In N.Y., Pennington & Belson noted the next several weeks will "unquestionably heighten the scrutiny" on the league's hiring practices and how "reliably, or willingly, the Rooney Rule will be employed." Coaches losing their jobs after the season is "routine and expected." However, with the NFL "under pressure to increase the percentage of minority coaches and executives, the makeup of the latest class of jettisoned coaches was especially startling" (N.Y. TIMES, 1/1). THE UNDEFEATED's Jason Reid wrote though league officials "insist they are committed to diversity," the current "state of diversity in the NFL can best be described as abysmal" (THEUNDEFEATED.com, 12/31).
NOT SERVING ITS PURPOSE? BLEACHER REPORT's Mike Freeman writes the Raiders' hiring of Mike Mayock as GM is a "perfect example of the Rooney Rule in action -- its strengths, its weaknesses and how teams can circumvent it if they want to." Sources said that the Raiders contacted former Giants GM Jerry Reese about the position, but he "declined to interview." They "also interviewed" former Giants VP/Player Evaluation Marc Ross and former Eagles College Scouting Dir Trey Brown. Sources said that the "bottom line is that none of Reese, Ross and Brown had any realistic chance of getting the job." It was "always Mayock's if he wanted it." The Raiders are "far from alone in this area." Several team officials said that "circumvention of the Rooney Rule is at an all-time high." One source, who is African-American and currently interviewing with teams, said that in "many cases, the Rooney Rule has become an exercise in box-checking" (BLEACHERREPORT.com, 1/2).
