The National Football League had the best of intentions when it enacted the “Rooney Rule,” which requires teams to interview a minority candidate when filling a head coach or general manager position.

Unfortunately, good intentions and a dollar bill won’t buy you a cup of coffee most places and this rule has accomplished little if anything.

Ostensibly, the Rooney Rule causes white team owners and general managers to look for people outside their comfort zones.

Even if these candidates don’t get hired on the first go round, they get publicity and become familiar to the people doing the hiring.

They also get experience in the interview process and, in theory, just being interviewed might make them a hot commodity which could lead to promotions, new contracts or other perks with their current teams.

In addition, since head coaches and general managers often only last a few years, theoretically the minority person given the courtesy interview might get the job on the second pass.

This is a nice idea, but in practice it does not work.

In the case of head coaches the vast majority of openings go to either previously successful head coaches (not a lot of minorities there) or “hot” coordinators (not too many minorities there, either).

Most teams have a strong idea of who they intend to hire before the actual interview as their bodies of work speak for themselves.

In most cases, as we just saw in Washington and in Cleveland, the teams target a well-known football figure (Mike Holmgren and Mike Shanahan respectively) and make them an offer.

The interview is largely to make sure everyone gets along or maybe it helps a team decide which ex-coach or coordinator it wants from a list of two or three.

The Rooney rule interviews largely go to whatever black guy it’s convenient to interview.
Washington interviewed its cornerbacks coach, even though he had absolutely no chance at the job.

They did this because no qualified minority coordinator or credible candidate would interview for a job that everyone knows was Shanahan’s to turn down. Washington could have interviewed P. Diddy and still met the requirements.

Realistically, a team could interview its African American security guard or Bill Cosby then just go and hire the guy they wanted all along.

If the NFL wants to see more black head coaches and general managers, then it should make teams apply the Rooney rule when hiring position coaches and front office assistants.

The only way there will be qualified candidates who reflect the diversity of the league will be if they work there way up just like white coaches do.

Of course, there has been racism in keeping both pro and college football head coaching jobs largely in the hands of white men.

But, even if a handful of owners wanted to hire minority candidates, exactly who should they hire? More black assistants will lead to more black coordinators which will lead to more black head coaches.

That will lead to more black head coaches getting fired which will lead to more black coaches becoming retreads and getting hired again.

Fixing this supposed problem starts at the bottom, not at the top. Nobody is helped by obscure position coaches getting courtesy interviews. Instead, if we want real change, we have to be patient and plant the seeds for change to come.

Daniel B. Kline’s work appears in over 100 papers weekly.
When he is not writing, Kline serves as general manager of Time Machine Hobby, New England’s largest hobby and toy store, www.timemachinehobby.com. He can be reached at dan@notastep.com or you can see his archive at dbkline.com or befriend him at facebook.com/dankline.