Over the past month or so new head coaches and general managers are settling down in their offices all over the NFL. The total of new head coaches and general managers add up to be 15 and they all have one large thing similarity that stand out; they are all Caucasian.
Currently, including the recently hired, there are only 9 out of the 64 possible "power positions" in the NFL that are occupied by minorities. That would be an incredibly low 14%.
What is crazy is that the NFL even has a rule that has tried to rise that percentage. That rule is named after the Steelers Owner Dan Rooney, who has had a long history of giving African Americans chances in the NFL not only as coaches, but also players. This rule simply states that for all "power position" openings, the team involved must interview at least one minority for the position. This is to try and get the Owners to interview someone that they normally wouldn't.
The Rooney Rule has dropped by the waste side in the past few years. No-a-days teams simply hire an in house minority candidate to satisfy the Rooney rule before hiring the Caucasian that they intended to hire from the beginning.
It is very common for NFL teams to hire the "HOT" name on the market instead of hiring the most qualified, regardless of the race. I do in fact believe that more minorities should get the opportunity to hold "power positions" in the NFL, but I also believe that many Caucasian are turned down for "power positions" as well, even though they are the more qualified. That's the nature of the beast.
There has been talks about adding more stipulations in order to increase the number of minorities holding "power positions." I am not quite sure what stipulations can be added without directly telling owners that they must hire minorities. I do not think that the NFL can do such a thing for the simple reason that the NFL cannot tell the owner of a team that they must have a business relationship with some that they may not want to or may not like.
The average life span of an NFL head coach is currently around 3 years, Caucasian or not. This seems to prove two things. The first is that the Owners of NFL teams are quick to pull the trigger and fire people if they do not get instant satisfaction. The second thing that this shows is that, in general, NFL Owners do a terrible job of hiring the right individual for the job. The NFL, I believe, must work on this first and as a result I am positive that the number of minority coaches will increase.
To solve this issue of hiring wrong individuals, the NFL should ask for help from the man who the Rooney rule is named after, Dan Rooney. This is because Rooney seems to be the best hiring Owner in NFL history. What is remarkable about his ownership is that since 1969 the Steelers have only had 3 Head Coaches. That is quite simply remarkable. What is even more remarkable is that each of those men, Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher, and Mike Tomlin (African American), have each won a Super Bowl contributing to the organization's six total.
I am thinking that Dan Rooney can easily hold a symposium on a weekend for all the NFL Owners, not to tell them how to hire coaches and General Managers, but to tell them how he does it. This does not force the owners to do anything, but it does show them a way that is very successful and in a "copycat" league, I'm sure that is is going to catch on.
So, although I believe that the lack of Minorities in "power positions" is an issue, I do not think that you can fix it by putting stipulations forcing owners to interview/hire them. In order to change the culture of the league, you must show the Owners a successful way to hire the most qualified and best man for the job. It is not going to be simple, but in the end I think that is the best way to go about increasing the number of minorities in "power positions" and overall increasing the quality of people holding those positions.
-JM
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