Steelers president Art Rooney II addresses progress, shortcomings with Rooney Rule
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For all of the philanthropic efforts Dan Rooney was involved in over a lifetime of roles with the Pittsburgh Steelers, perhaps no part of the late Steelers patriarch’s legacy will endure more than the NFL rule that bears his name.
But nowadays, despite being regarded as having the best of intentions, the Rooney Rule appears under fire.
The NFL and three of its teams are facing a lawsuit brought this week by former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores. The suit, in part, alleges teams approach the Rooney Rule with “sham” interviews of minority candidates for head coach and general manager openings.
The rule, which dates to 2003, initially required teams to interview at least one Black candidate for a head coach opening. It since has been expanded to require two such interviews (and to include other minorities) and now also includes vacant coordinator and general manager jobs.
In the wake of the Flores lawsuit, and because only one of the 28 sitting NFL coaches is Black, much attention is on the Rooney Rule this week — most of it negative. But the son of the rule’s namesake said he has seen recent progress in front-office and coordinator hires, even if a lack of Black head coaches is a concern.
Steelers president Art Rooney II defended the NFL on Thursday amid mounting criticism over the league’s minority hiring practices while acknowledging there is still work to be done.
“While I acknowledge that we have not seen progress in the ranks of head coaches, we have seen marked improvement in the hiring of women and minorities in other key leadership roles such as coordinator positions, general manager positions, and front office positions both in and out of football operations,” Art Rooney II said through a prepared statement. “I believe this progress has been made as a result of the implementation of many of the enhanced policies that were recently adopted.”
Flores was fired last month by Miami after leading the Dolphins to a 24-25 record over three years. https://t.co/dsklyjErok
— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) February 1, 2022
After the recent firings of Flores by the Dolphins and David Culley by the Houston Texans, the Steelers’ Mike Tomlin stands as the NFL’s lone Black head coach. Washington’s Ron Rivera is of Hispanic descent, and the New York Jets’ Robert Saleh is Arab American. (He also became the first Muslim be an NFL head coach.)
Flores was fired after three seasons and Culley after going 4-13 in one season.
In all, nine teams fired their head coaches this season. Of the four that have had an official hire announced, all were filled by white candidates.
It appears the Rooney Rule is being followed to some degree: Those four teams combined to interview 13 Black candidates, according to compilations of published reports. So why are the hires of minority coaches not coming to fruition?
“The Flores lawsuit is how the Rooney Rule needs to eventually get its teeth — in the courtroom,” said Aron Solomon, who is the chief legal analyst for Esquire Digital, a digital marketing agency for attorneys. “No matter how robust a candidate list is in any given offseason, where the Rooney Rule is fatally flawed and is in effect a toothless, declawed housecat rather than the lion it was hoped to be, is in the penalties. And this is exactly where the courts need to come in.”
Art Rooney II’s background is in law, and he declined to comment specifically about the 58-page Flores lawsuit. His team would not seem to be part of the problem: In addition to having the NFL’s lone Black head coach, the Steelers have Black men at three prominently titled coaching spots — head coach, assistant head coach (John Mitchell) and senior defensive assistant (Teryl Austin). Additionally, two minorities hold prominent positions in football operations: Omar Khan as vice president of football and business administration and Brandon Hunt as pro scouting coordinator.
Austin, Patrick Graham and Kris Richard are known to have been interviewed to take over as defensive coordinator. All are Black.
“Over the past several years, our Diversity Committee has recommended, and ownership has adopted, a number of enhancements to the Rooney Rule as well as new policies designed to ensure that women and minorities are receiving full and fair consideration for coaching and front office positions,” Rooney said.
Steelers president Art Rooney II statement regarding Rooney Rule in the wake of the Brian Flores/NFL lawsuit.
Should be noted that Steelers have minorities at 2 of top 4 positions in Football Ops, and at top two on coaching staff (head coach and assistant head coach) pic.twitter.com/flzOnYChHv
— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) February 3, 2022
Two of the three teams — the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears — that fired general managers (who were white) since the end of the season have hired minority candidates as replacements.
The Bears reportedly interviewed eight minority candidates in their search for a new GM before hiring Ryan Poles. They also interviewed five Black candidates for their head coach position but hired Matt Eberflus, who is white.
Word broke Thursday that the New York Giants hired a woman to their coaching staff for the first time, making Laura Young their director of coaching operations.
“It’s important that people be committed to an equity in hiring,” longtime NFL agent Leigh Steinberg told the Tribune-Review, “and not give a face-saving interview to meet the requirements of the rule.
“Obviously, at the end of the day (the Rooney Rule) has not produced the results that Dan was hoping for. The concept is great, but it just… hasn’t worked out to produce results they were looking for.”
A Sharon native and Pitt alumnus, Austin is a longtime respected NFL defensive assistant coach with five seasons as a coordinator for two teams on his resume. But he told the Associated Press in a story published this week that he’s been interviewed for a head coach position 11 times and never been hired.
Austin’s agent, Eric Metz, has maintained for the past four years that Austin’s 2018 interview with the Detroit Lions was “a sham” because they had always intended to hire Matt Patricia as coach and sat with Austin only to satisfy requirements of the Rooney Rule.
“I guess it’s being brought up again because of the Flores lawsuit,” Metz said in a message to the Tribune-Review. “I’m not saying (it’s) ‘racism’ as much as the Rooney Rule, though well-intentioned, is not working in its current form. Amendments need to be made. Perhaps giving a team hiring a minority (head coach) an extra first-round pick. Regardless, it’s time for change.”
A team spokesman said Austin was out of town and unavailable for comment Thursday. Tomlin, too, is not speaking to media while in Mobile, Ala., scouting at the Senior Bowl.
At the end of last year’s hiring cycle, when the coaching carousel stopped spinning with three Black coaches among five minorities as head coaches in the league, Tomlin called it “a global collective failure” during an interview he did on the subject with HBO’s “Real Sports.”
“We just can’t continue to do the same things that we’ve done,” Tomlin told Bryant Gumbel, “and think the outcome is going to change.”
The Vikings, Texans, Dolphins and New Orleans Saints remain in the market for a head coach. Minnesota is reportedly close to announcing the hire of Kevin O’Connell. The Jacksonville Jaguars hired Doug Pederson on Thursday. Both are white. Byron Leftwich — a former Steelers quarterback who is Black — had been linked to the Jaguars job.
Flores interviewed for the Giants’ opening this offseason — one of three Black candidates out of six coaches the franchise formally interviewed — but he claims in his lawsuit the team had already decided it would hire Brian Daboll before Flores interviewed. Daboll is white.
The Giants denied the claim in a statement Thursday.
Nathaniel Hackett, who also is white, last week was named coach of the Broncos, one of the teams named in the lawsuit brought by Flores. Flores alleges Denver front-office head John Elway and CEO Joe Ellis showed up to a 2019 interview of Flores “disheveled” and “obvious that they had been drinking heavily the night before.”
Elway strongly refuted those claims in a statement released to media Thursday, saying the claims were “false and defamatory” and that he interviewed Flores “in good faith.”
The Steelers will be hiring a general manager later this spring because longtime GM Kevin Colbert will retire after the NFL Draft in April. So far, the Steelers are known to have interviewed in-house candidates Khan (whose parents are from Honduras and India) and Hunt (who is Black).
Penn State’s James Franklin is one of three Black head coaches in the Big Ten and one of 14 in college football’s FBS. During remarks to media Wednesday, Franklin said it was “somewhat crazy” and “probably concerning” that in 2022 the minority representation at the pro and college level is not better.
“I think there’s obviously been some policies and some plans to try to help with that,” Franklin said in referencing the Rooney Rule, “but at the end of the day, those things have not made much of an impact. So at the end of the day, I think we’ve got to really get down to the core issues and ‘Why is it a problem in the first place?’”