Roger Goodell on Minority HC Hires: Don't Look at Rooney Rule in 1-Year Periods

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell believes it's unfair to judge the efficacy of the Rooney Rule on one offseason of coaching hirings and firings.

"We don't look at the success of the Rooney Rule in one-year increments," Goodell said Wednesday, per NFL Network's Ian Rapoport. "We wanted to figure out how to create a deeper pool of coaches."

Both during and after the 2018 regular season, eight teams fired their head coaches. Of that group, five coaches were black. Brian Flores is set to be the only minority coaching hire. Flores can't officially take over as the Miami Dolphins head coach until after Super Bowl LIII and is all but certain to get the job.

Because of that, some wonder whether the Rooney Rule is working as intended. Under the guideline, teams are required to interview at least one minority candidate for a head coach or general manager vacancy.

ESPN.com's Jenna Laine interviewed Harold Goodwin, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers assistant head coach and run game coordinator. According to Laine, Goodwin "alluded to teams not taking the Rooney Rule seriously" during their discussion.

"I will give credit to two owners — [Buffalo Bills' Terry] Pegula and [Jacksonville Jaguars'] Shad Khan. They were actually in the interview," he said. "I can't say that about the others. So, those were real interviews. I appreciated that opportunity."

The Rooney Rule can only go so far to address the structural difficulties minority coaches face.

ESPN The Magazine's Mina Kimes examined one study that showed white coaches were 114 percent more likely to receive a coordinator job in the NFL than a minority coach with the same level of experience and qualifications.

In December, the NFL amended the Rooney Rule to broaden the pool of candidates. Teams must interview one minority candidate from outside of their organization. Both the NFL's career development advisory panel and Fritz Pollard Alliance create lists of qualified coaches that are available for teams to access during the hiring process.