Gruden Fired..

[Lukie]

Funny/hypocritical/laughable/etc. -- The Bucs fired John Gruden, which they have every right to do, then immediately hired a black candidate without ever interviewing a white one. However, were it reversed (i.e. had they fired a black coach and immediately hired a white one), it would been a blatant disregard for the rooney rule and the bucs would be subject to a huge fine.

Have I ever mentioned that I think it's a crappy rule in this day and age?

Straw man.

When was the last time someone got fined for not interviewing a minority coach? If it's a big name or in-house promotion, they always look the other way.

Sometimes it doesn't even matter: Who else did the Rams interview?

You are wrong on every point (impressive).

The last example I know of was when the NFL fined Matt Millen $200k back in 2003 for not interviewing any minority candidates before hiring Steve Mariucci.

If you were a minority candidate, would you comply with a sham interview when you had no chance at a job? How would you feel if you were Millen (no jokes about the quality of his roster please, it's irrelevant here) and were fined $200k because no minority candidate wanted to interview because it was so obvious Mariucci was getting the job?

The NFL *NEVER* looks away. Teams do sham interviews to meet this useless rule instead. For example, the Browns (who had just had a black coach) interviewed Mel Tucker (The Browns Defensive coordinator who is black), who clearly had no shot at the job. He wasn't even qualified and the defense arguably underperformed.

Please provide one example of a time when the NFL looked the other way on this rule. Note that there's an exception in the rule that an in-house replacement can be immediately promoted but *ONLY* if that is written into the contract before the former head coach resigns/is fired (see: Seattle with Holmgren and Mora).

The rams interviewed Leslie Frasier (who is black), among others. source: http://www.profootballtalk.com/2009/...aves-st-louis/

"Sham" is the key word here. Everyone around the NFL knows all you have to do is chat up Dennis Green for half an hour and you're covered.

When you have to go back six years to find an example of enforcement, along with three minority coaches hired in that time, it's a pretty good sign that no one takes this very serioiusly.

You have to go back 6 years to find an example of enforcement, because teams are smart enough to follow the letter of the law. You still didn't provide an example of a time when the NFL didn't enforce the rule. You said:

When was the last time someone got fined for not interviewing a minority coach? If it's a big name or in-house promotion, they always look the other way.

I'm still waiting for an example.

OF COURSE teams do sham interviews if there are no qualified black candidates. Take an example I am intimately familiar with (as a Browns fan)-- Cleveland had a head coach opening this year. What qualified minority candidate was there to interview?? The only name you could possibly come up with is Leslie Frazier, DC of the Vikings. However, they run a completely different scheme with completely different personnel than do the Browns, and his background is entirely on defense.

Again, I ask, who should the Browns have interviewed? There were only a handful of people that even had a chance, and none of them happened to be a minority. Big deal. We also just had a black coach, so don't pull the implicit racism card.

Re: 3 minority head coaches hired in the last 6 years. What's your point? How many head coaches *total* have been hired in that span and what percent of the population do blacks make up? If this doesn't work, I'd invoke the sample size argument.

More importantly, in that 6 year stretch, can you give me one minority candidate that is qualified to be a head coach yet was not hired or seriously considered? I don't think you can find one.

Make no mistake about it, teams are not doing the wrong thing by doing sham interviews if there are no qualified minority candidates to take their HC position. They are being forced into doing so (to avoid a huge fine) by a blatantly unfair, reverse discriminatory rule. Why should teams take a laughable rule seriously?

Put yourself in Leslie Frazier's shoes. The guy WILL be a head coach some day, and my money is on sooner rather than later (and this has absolutely nothing to do with this bogus Rooney Rule). Don't you think when he is ultimately a head coach, there will be people that think he was only hired because of the rule? I think that is a shame. Being the head coach of an NFL team (i.e. the very top of the profession) is something to be proud of and it's unfortunate that this rule could diminish that accomplishment in some peoples eyes.

note: I use black and minority interchangeably here because while not strictly accurate, minority does = black in the NFL world.