Steelers Owner on Rooney Rule: Must See ‘What Can Be Done’ to Increase Minority Coaching Hires

In an interview with the Athletic, Pittsburgh Steelers Owner Art Rooney II said he judges the success of the Rooney Rule based on “the results.”

The Rooney Rule, implemented in 2003, is an NFL policy mandating teams interview minority candidates for head coaching and GM jobs. It was named after Dan Rooney, Art’s late father, and long-time Steelers owner.

Some feel the Rooney Rule took a hit recently since the NFL started the 2018 season with eight minority coaches (seven black and one Puerto Rican), and ended now only have four (three black and one Puerto Rican).

Black head coaches Todd Bowles (New York Jets), Steve Wilks (Arizona Cardinals), Marvin Lewis (Cincinnati Bengals), Vance Joseph (Denver Broncos) and Hue Jackson (Cleveland Browns) recently lost their jobs. Only one black coach got hired to fill one of the NFL’s eight openings, with former New England Patriots assistant Brian Flores landing the Miami job.

In addition, there were seven head coaching vacancies in 2017, and none of those jobs went to minorities.

As a result, Art Rooney II sees a problem with current state of the rule named for his legendary father.

“We have to judge our progress on the results,” Steelers Owner Art Rooney II told Tim Graham of the Athletic. “It’s like looking at your team. You are what your record says you are.

“I’m not going to sit here and accuse anyone of racism, but the facts are what they are. We have to look at the opportunities that were given to minorities this latest round and see what can be done about it.”

Some would say there’s nothing that can be done about it, since the NFL can force teams to interview minority candidates, but can’t force them to hire them.

“This is not a program where you require teams to hire minorities,” Art Rooney II said.

The NFL is considered a copycat league. A lot of teams hired young “QB gurus” to their head coaching spot this time, and there weren’t a lot of minority QB coaches (or offensive coordinators) in the NFL the last couple of years. Some have theorized that this phenomenon hurt minority head coaching candidates. Four young “QB gurus” who were hired to be NFL head coaches recently were Kliff Kingsbury (Cardinals), Zac Taylor (Bengals), Matt LaFleur (Green Bay Packers) and Adam Gase (Jets).

So the NFL is organizing an upcoming event called “QB Summit” which will take place in Atlanta this June. At this conference, young minority offensive coaches will work with established head coaches, and former NFL executives, to help them further their careers, and perhaps become head coaches one day.

Art Rooney II didn’t rule out expanding the Rooney Rule to more positions, such as offensive coordinator jobs.

“I wouldn’t be opposed to looking at it,” Rooney said. “But I would say the real question in my mind is how do we make sure there are people coming into the pipeline that have the opportunity to move up into these positions? If you don’t have people coming up through the ranks, you can have all the rules about interviewing that you want.”