Columns like this shouldn’t have to be written anymore.
Yet they are.
Articles about the lack of African-American head coaches in professional and college sports should be a subject of the past. Unfortunately, they aren’t.
The Indianapolis Colts (www.colts.com) winning a Super Bowl (www.nfl.com) should be more about Tony Dungy finally capturing the Lombardi Trophy rather than the color of his skin.
 Nothing against Tony Dungy’s achievement, but it shouldn’t have taken this long for a African-American head coach to win the Super Bowl. |
February marks National Black History Month and wouldn’t it be nice if the issues of quotas, ratios, and the Rooney Rule were just that—history.
Out of the monumental matchup of Chicago head coach Lovie Smith and Dungy in Super Bowl XLI, the NFL’s Rooney Rule was a highly debated topic in the two weeks leading up to it.
“I don’t know that there’s a glass ceiling,” Dungy told ABC Sports Radio. “Lovie and I are just proof, the results of people getting an opportunity. It’s been so difficult for African Americans in a lot of venues to get opportunities. Professional football is one of them.”
The Rooney Rule, adapted in 2002 and named after its advocator, Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, requires NFL teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching positions. The rule is not applicable to front office openings.
The rule has been met with skepticism by all races because of a general perception that as long as owners bring in at least one (because they are forced too) minority for an interview, then they’ve met their quota.
This controversial practice was needed in the league not only for the lack of minority hirings but also the limited number of interviews offered.
In 2003, the Detroit Lions management and ownership were fined $200,000 for their immediate hire of Steve Mariucci and failure to comply with the league mandate.
Since then owners have stuck to the Rooney Rule, which has aided in such hirings as Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh by Rooney, Smith in Chicago, and Marvin Lewis in Cincinnati. Kansas City’s Herman Edwards is the other current black head coach in the NFL. Dennis Green was fired in Arizona and Art Shell, the first black head coach in the history of the NFL, was recently fired in his second go around with the Oakland Raiders.
Prior to Shell in 1989, the NFL went 68 years without an African-American head coach.
Branching off the debate at the professional level, the spotlight has shifted to the collegiate level where, shockingly, only six of the 119 Division I head football coaching positions are filled by African Americans. Tyrone Willingham (Washington), Randy Shannon (Miami), Sylvester Croom (Mississippi State), Karl Dorrell (UCLA), Turner Gill (Buffalo), and former Virginia offensive coordinator Ron Prince, now at Kansas State, compile the short list.
Eye opening? Indeed.
In April 2005, Virginia made head basketball coach Dave Leitao its first African- American head coach in the school’s history.
What if there were to be a Rooney Rule in college football?
Should there be a Rooney Rule at all? No.
Is it necessary? Yes, and it’s a damn shame it is.
It would be nice to live in a world where “quotas” don’t need to be met. Unfortunately, this world hasn’t matured to that level of thinking where everyone, no matter what skin color, is on a level playing field.
Wes McElroy hosts “The Final Round” on ESPN 840am. M-F 3pm-5pm.