Anybody else sick and tired of hearing about the Rooney Rule? Anybody else bored to tears with reading about the politics associated with it? I know it is ironic to ink a blog about it when I’m sick of hearing about it, but isn’t that what blogs are for? <\/p>\n
Does anybody even believe it anymore when there’s a press release saying that teams have complied with the rule? Or do you just slough it off as though the team obviously found a way to make it look like they did? Teams are circumventing the Rooney Rule by interviewing in-house staff before positions are open; teams are allegedly ‘faking’ the interview process when they already have a candidate in mind.<\/p>\n
Is it because the rule is ridiculous?<\/p>\n
Is it because organizations just want to hire who they think the best person for the job is and not worry about semantics?<\/p>\n
When forced to deal with the semantics, they jump around it and do it anyway. So what good is the rule?<\/p>\n
Does it make the NFL look better? I guess.<\/p>\n
Does it make it look like they earnestly want to give minorities better opportunities?<\/p>\n
Not really. Not when the bulk of the media coverage about the Rooney Rule is basically describing what a waste of time it is.<\/p>\n
I’d be curious to know what the Fritz Pollard Alliance get paid for their troubles before I decide whether or not they are acting in good faith. Seems to me that they could easily be just another part of the problem, but I’m reserving judgment for when I have more pieces of the puzzle.<\/p>\n
For the record, John Wooten of Fritz Pollard has stated emphatically that the Redskins were in compliance of the rule when they hired Mike Shanahan. According to Redskins Insider, Wooten even went so far as to defend Dan Snyder with a little extra gusto, “I told Jerry (Gray) that Dan Snyder went about it the right way. He called the commissioner and the commissioner called me. The thing that bothered me with Jerry is he didn’t stand up and say, `Dan Snyder came to me and asked me would I be interested in being coach of the Redskins?’ ”<\/p>\n