Tony Dungy calls out NFL teams for violating the spirit of the Rooney Rule
There's only been one minority hired as an NFL head coach since 2012
By
John Breech
•
2 min read
Over the past four years, the NFL has seemingly regressed when it comes to minority hiring and Tony Dungy apprently doesn't like it.
In 2003, the NFL attempted to address its diversity issue in the coaching ranks by implementing the Rooney Rule, which required each team to interview at least one minority candidate during the search for a new head coach.
The rule seemed to pay off almost immediately, when three minority coaches were hired between 2003 and 2006 (Marvin Lewis, Lovie Smith, Romeo Crennel). That was a huge jump for the NFL, which only saw one minority coach hired between 1997 and 2001.
The bad news for the NFL is that the league seems to be regressing in terms of minority hirings. Dungy, a former Colts coach, has definitely noticed this recent trend, and he's blaming the league's 32 teams.
According to Dungy, most teams are now violating the spirit of the Rooney Rule.
"The good thing about the Rooney Rule was not that you had to interview a minority candidate but that it slowed the process down and made you do some research," Dungy told ESPN.com. "But now it seems like in the last few years, people haven't really done what the rule was designed for. It has become, 'Just let me talk to a couple minority coaches very quickly so I can go about the business of hiring the person I really want to hire anyway.'"
Lions defensive coordinator Teryl Austin would probably agree with Dungy. Austin interviewed for four head coaching jobs this offseason, but said he only thought two of them were legitimate, implying that the other two were done just to fulfill the Rooney Rule.
According to a study by ESPN, "80 of the NFL's current 85 offensive coordinators, quarterbacks coaches and offensive quality control coaches are white," which has made it almost impossible for minority coach to get a head coaching job.
Most new coaches are hired after they serve time as a coordinator, and the fewer minority coordinators exist, the harder it is for one to get a head coaching job.
Another problem for minority coaches is that sometimes owners just want to make a splash.
"I think when you are a minority coach, you have even that added burden, or added handicap of not always being highly publicized," Dungy said. "For owners who do not know what they are looking for, it is much easier to say, 'Well, I'll take Candidate A because at least everybody knows him and everybody will say this is a good hire.'"
So how do you fix the problem?
It seems that Dungy would start by taking a look at the entire hiring process for first-time coaches, not just the process of hiring a minority candidate.
"Too frequently, we don't look at leadership, we don't look at getting the most out of people, we don't look at bringing people together and staffs together -- all those things that you need to be a head coach," Dungy said. "It is an inexact science. It is done in an inexact way. Look how long it took Bruce Arians to get a head-coaching job; it is not just with minorities."
If things don't change soon, the lack of minority hires could become a black eye for the NFL. From 2012 to 2015, only one out of the league's 22 head coaching vacancies ended up being filled by a minority (Todd Bowles).
