Does the NFL Need the Rooney Rule?

Yes.

I read a lot of cleveland.com/sports, and right now there are a lot of articles up about the Browns interviewing Perry Fewell, which they did today. Many think this interview was simply to fulfill the Rooney Rule requirement, which is that all temas must interview a minority candidate for a head coaching job. This is a false, as Mary Kay Cabot reported in this article that the Browns brass were "eagerly anticipating" the interview. There are lot of comments on different articles about how "outdated" the Rooney Rule is because it's "insulting" to minority candidates when they're just interviewed as a token candidate to satisfy the rule.

I'm not trying to stifle free speech, as those people are entitled to their own opinions, but as an African-American male, I have to say that the Rooney Rule is neither of those.

First of all, the rule was only established in 2003, back when only seven African-Americans had held a head coaching position in the NFL. Yes seven in the entire history of the NFL, which was formed in 1920. Plus, there were only two black coaches at that time - Herman Edwards and Tony Dungy. There are currently five black head coaches (could be six if Oakland hires Hue Jackson as they're expected to), and six minorities if you count the Panthers freshly named HC Ron Rivera. You also have Art Shell, Dennis Green, Romeo Crenel, Mike Singletary and the aforementioned Edwards and Dungy as African-Americans who have held coaching positions since that time. That's a huge increase from before '03, and to me it means that the rule is working.

Now when it comes to those "token" interviews, I believe even if the team knows who they want to hire, they're still important. Take Leslie Frazier for instance. That guy has been a coveted defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings, and with the amount of interviews he had received the last couple of years the Vikings knew they were probably going to lose him this offseason if they didn't hire him themselves. Lo and behold, that's exactly what they did. That is the Rooney Rule at work.

I also believe that the Rooney Rule should be extended to NCAA football coaches. When you look at the numbers, there are 32 coaches in the NFL and there are going to be at least 6 minority coaches next year. You look at just Division 1 football, and there are upwards of 100 temas and you could count the black coaches on no more than two hands. (Check out this article and this article for where I got that. It's been a little while since those articles came out, which is why I didn't give an exact number).

Despite the fact that I think a lot of the NCAA football system is stupid and corrupt, I think the NFL has proved that if you make it a requirement to at least interview a minority candidate, you're going to increase the amount that are hired. You can't tell me there aren't more qualified minority coaches for college football in this country than have been hired. They just need to be given the opportunity.

So, you eight readers out there that I'm preaching to, I believe the Rooney Rule is an important part of the NFL today. It's not outdated, it's not irrelevant, and it certainly is not insulting.

Just ask Leslie Frazier.

~MAS