NFL: Rooney Rule In Need of Review?

Word on the street is the Dallas Cowboys will drop the “interim” from Jason Garrett’s title and make him the new Dallas Cowboys head coach.

Earlier today though, Cowboys owner/general manager/club kid Jerry Jones denied that he had made a final decision.

So what’s going on?

Clearly, Jerry wants Garrett to coach the team in 2011. The problem is, he can’t get around the Rooney Rule. 

For those of you living under a rock since 2003, the Rooney Rule was put into place in 2003 to require teams to interview at least one minority candidate for a head coaching vacancy.

While we will never know exactly what specific impact this rule has had in the hiring of African American head coaches, the reality is, “The overall percentage of African American coaches had jumped to 22 percent, up from six percent prior to the Rooney Rule.”

Of the last four Super Bowls, four of the eight head coaches were black. With that kind of success rate, it might get you wondering if the NFL still needs the Rooney Rule.

The reality in Dallas is this: if Jason Garrett was black, he would be hired already. However, Jones doesn’t want to violate the Rooney Rule. The Lions did that back in 2003 and were fined $200,000.

Even for a rich man like Jones, that’s a lot cash.

So instead of just making Garrett the head man in Dallas, he’s going to go find himself a token black guy to interview.

Now this isn’t going to be one of those “poor white people” blog posts. This rule is a great rule.

The NFL’s hiring practices were more offensive than old Disney cartoons. The Rooney Rule has been a huge success. One day the NFL won’t need it. In fact, that day may come sooner rather than later.

The question here is, can there be an exception now?

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