Rooney Rule Extended to Cover GM Jobs
The NFL has extended its minority interviewing rule to include openings for general manager jobs and equivalent front office positions, in addition to head coaching vacancies.
The league made the announcement today. The move had been expected after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said at a set of owners' meetings last month in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., that he planned to expand the rule.
Under the new rule, any team seeking to hire a senior football operations official for its front office must interview at least one minority candidate.
"The discussion at the league meeting identified the strong reasons for taking this step, which in large part simply confirms a recommended practice that clubs have voluntarily embraced," Goodell said in a written statement released by the NFL. "The recommendation also recognizes that this process has worked well in the context of head coaches, and that clubs have deservedly received considerable positive recognition for their efforts in this respect."
The rule previously had required each club with a head coaching vacancy to interview at least one minority candidate.
That provision widely was known as the Rooney Rule after Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, the chairman of the league's workplace diversity committee, and was credited by many observers for the gains in diversity that the league has made in its head coaching ranks in recent years.
The Fritz Pollard Alliance, the group formed to promote diversity in hiring at all levels in the NFL, had pressed in recent years for the league to extend its minority interviewing requirement to key front office jobs. But NFL officials until recently had resisted making that move, instead asking teams to follow the guideline voluntarily.
The league indicated that the minority interviewing rule will not apply to a case in which a team's top front office job is held or filled by the franchise's owner or a member of his family, or in a case in which a team has an already existing contractual obligation to promote a member of its front office staff.
According to the league, Goodell also urged teams to interview a diverse slate of candidates for other vacant front office jobs.
"The more thorough the search, the more likely clubs are to find the right candidates, and to be able to groom future leaders from within their organizations," Goodell said in a written statement.
According to the NFL, there are five African-American general managers league-wide: the Baltimore Ravens' Ozzie Newsome, the Arizona Cardinals' Rod Graves, the New York Giants' Jerry Reese, the Houston Texans' Rick Smith and the Detroit Lions' Martin Mayhew.
By
Mark Maske
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June 15, 2009; 1:55 PM ET
| Category:
Diversity
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League
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Posted by: Rockman2 | June 16, 2009 2:10 PM
An absolutely hollow gesture. Means nothing, except that the NFL continues to pander. Will the NFL next extend the Rooney rule to kickers and punters?
Posted by: AWWNats | June 15, 2009 4:47 PM
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This rule should be expanded to include the players as well.