Rooney Rule used as it was intended.

They are required to interview two candidates, as of May 2020.

One interesting thing is that if Omar Khan gets hired as a GM, the Steelers will get 2 3rd round picks.

 

Mac I've found that everything in life begins to fall into patterns. In the NFL prior to the Rooney rule teams were just recycling the same head coaches year after year and not attempting to find new talent. Your post is more in line with what Dallas did than the Texans. Dallas scheduled interviews to satisfy the rule after they had already decided McCarthy was their guy. True be told they knew the moment the fired Garret. They scheduled Marvin Lewis as window dressing because his resume says he is a top candidate. I don't particularly care for the politics either but the first step in changing a pattern is to break the pattern. Ward now has experience in interviewing for a head coaching job in the NFL, he knows what they are looking for, what he needs to work on and how to present himself as a candidate. The 2 year tech school I went to a few years back to try and get a better situation career wise has a 1 credit required course called job seeking job keeping which does just that. Shows people how to apply for jobs and the skills needed to keep it.

Sidenote at my age I'm pretty jaded and think some of the patterns in my life are amusing. The company I work for has regulars posting for advancement and people around me apply for different jobs. Everyone I have seen in the last 12 years comes for their interview dressed up. Button down shirt, tie, dress slacks and dress shoes to interview for a receiving supervisor job or a custodial position. I think I should find sad that not only are they under the impression that they need to dress up for the interview but that the interviewers are actually impressed by something that has nothing to do with doing the job/.

 

Let’s take the picks!

 

insinuation or not everything in life begins to fall into patterns. I drive to work the same way everyday and don't consider changing my route until there is something like road construction that forces me to change and I find a faster route. If not for being forced I doubt I'd have changed or felt the need to look for better options. It's much the same with the Rooney Rule. Teams were not expanding their coaching searches and recycling the same coaches.

 

This assumes that the best man or lady is in the search which wasn't happening. Teams were just swapping the same coaching carousel hoping the "name" and that is what it was for a long time, they hired the name for the coaching job and hoping the success from a job three jobs prior was repeated for them. It went round and round and round

 

I've had minority coworkers that are given huge leeway in behavior and work ethic because of their status and the company doesn't want the reputation they have worked very hard on dragged through the mud of a discrimination lawsuit. Ideally every place should hire the best qualified and not particularly the one that is a minority but some companies get scared of that.

 

Big shout out to the mods and board members that have participated in the discussion thus far. This is a hot button topic and as such can lead to fights. I wasn't sure about posting it last night but to me the tweet said that progress is being made with changing the status quo. Thank you to everyone participating.

 

I feel as though I successfully tip toed through the topic. Not exactly certain to as why it is always necessary though. I'll just say it's my privilege to do so.

I really hope Hines Ward gets the Head Coaching job but what a dumpster fire he will be walking into.

 

dressing up for an interview is not a bad thing. it tells the interviewer, in most cases that is the boss of the company or owner that you feel it is important enough to go the extra step which is what i would want in a new hire partially. that it's important to present yourself in a manner that will reflect on the company as well.

now for your first part. now it's all new talent that really isn't ready for prime time, well in a lot of cases. i'm sure there are parts that were the good ol boys club back then but some of these guys are still the same owners. they now, since it's splattered all over the internet and TV with coverage at an all time high, image saving, branding, putting on a show for the masses. do you think many have really changed their tunes besides that? it's persona, in many cases. you don't want to hurt your brand or the NFL's brand. just like the kneeling, it hurt the bottom line heavily. they tried to dance around it. when people started saying it was a slap in the face to the men and women that served in the military, the following season you had the military represented heavy at every game. why didn't they care about them prior to that? because it didn't hit them in the wallet and it was covered so heavily. there were minorities hired prior to the rooney rule but they wanted more. that's when it really took hold. if they want true equality then they should have more white guys in professional sports. they don't complain about that balance, because it doesn't effect the bottom line. it started with owner, then Qb's, then coaches, but not a word about the 70%-30% inequality of players and skin color. why?

i'm not trying to start a racial situation here but the facade that is going on is hard to watch and many friends of mine minority or not feel this is a slap in the face to them and doesn't change anything for the better but divides even more. social media drives the ship to chase the money.

 

nobody ever said it forces them to hire anyone. why waste their time and the interviewee's time if you are only doing it for a show? people are not hired all the time if their resume states they are underqualified or overqualified for jobs. most of the time they don't get an interview.

 

why else have a rule. it's not enforceable.

 

You would if You were looking for a Head coaching job. It's not like there are millions of them. Texans are one of 32 chances.

 

Man, the stupidly that gets voiced every time this subject comes up is remarkable.

The only thing I’ll say is that I hope this gets Hines some more attention in a very good NFL coaching room that grooms him into a some sharp HC steel and graduates to our glorious team.

Not the most decorated of all the past Steelers greats, but Hines Ward is my favorite Steeler of all time. I could gush about the guy ad nauseam.

 

That's what got Cully in hot water to begin with. HE said that part out loud when asked why he took the job. There are only 32 of them and this was the one he was offered. The GM wasn't happy with that answer at all but this was the height of the Watson debacle and Hopkins forcing his way out as well as JJ getting cut that is a lot to jump into.

 

While I totally agree with Him....He should have kept that unto Himself.

 

He’s arguably a hall of famer that’s succeeded at the highest level as a wide receiver. It’s fair to say he understands the game. I’m not saying the Rooney rule wasn’t a factor but I’m also not saying it was.

I was only playing devils advocate by stating he may have gotten the interview on his own merits.

Everybody’s got to start somewhere.

 

I could see Leftwich get the Jaguars job. That would be cool to see it go full circle for him.

 

The rule is an embarrassment, never should have been implemented. Under no circumstance should a business owner be told who he or she should consider for a job.

 

Makes sense to help Lawrence, but I expect they go with "safe" pick (someone who has HC experience). Can Leftwich still throw? The line could carry him around.

 

well yes that is a huge part of it. How many jobs have you or anyone gotten because you told the employer I had an interview with so and so? What the neck has that got to do with it? How many companies let you know how you did at an intervew?

 

I think the reason is not to increase but to displace. If you think about the fraternity of coaches, past and present, in the NFL is heavily weighed in a direction.

The purpose, I think, is to curtail nepotism and redundant hires ( ex. Adam Gase ). The intention is to make sure a minority candidate has a chance to come crush an interview. The candidate crushes it so much that a team would be crazy to pass on them and step outside the revolving door.

 

You know what they say about the road to hell.

The problem is that there's a completely foreseeable and very damaging backlash that diminishes the accomplishments and perceptions of an individual.

You're perceived as getting special treatment. You're perceived as getting an interview, getting hired, getting promoted, and retaining your job due to the special treatment. You never receive full credit for your hard work and achievements.

It's a very hard problem with no easy answers.