“Yo, Is This…” Advice Column

Established in the National Football League in 2003 after a push by civil rights attorneys Cyrus Mehri and Johnnie Cochran, the “Rooney Rule” requires each NFL organization to interview at least one minority candidate when searching for a new head coach. When this rule was first initiated, research showed that it positively impacted coaching diversity. Before the creation of the Rooney Rule, only 6.3 percent of games were coached by people of color; by the year 2011, that number rose to 27.1 percent. More recently, the Rooney Rule has become relatively ineffective, as the number of games coached by people of color has plummeted to 12.5 percent (Beer). While the rule is still in effect, team owners and general managers seem to be deciding on their new head coaching hires before even speaking with minority candidates. These issues have led to recently implemented changes to the original Rooney Rule. Specifically, all teams are now required to interview at least two external minority candidates for head coaching positions (as opposed to one in the original rule) and interview one external minority candidate for coordinator (offensive, defensive, or special teams), general manager, and senior football operations positions. Despite these changes, however, concerns remain regarding the effectiveness of the Rooney Rule. Does this policy attack the issue of unequal coaching hiring practices at its systemic roots, or do teams simply view their interviews with minority candidates as boxes to check on their weekly to-do lists? Will the recent amendments to the Rooney Rule revitalize its effectiveness or prove burdensome and ineffectual? This entry will attempt to definitively answer these two questions, and ultimately decide, “Yo, Is This Racist?”

      When analyzing the utility of the Rooney Rule, it is important to understand the true intention of this policy. While many think the Rooney Rule was created as a way of forcing teams to hire minority candidates, that is not the case. Although the National Football League can regulate certain aspects of the interviewing process, it can never force owners to hire certain candidates. Therefore, this policy was created to require owners to give fair consideration to a variety of qualified candidates. Because of the NFL’s inability to impose more firm restrictions on owners, however, I believe the Rooney Rule falls short of its intended purpose. Not only does this rule fail to attack the issue at its roots, it allows for the perpetuation of systemic racism through the continuation of racist hiring practices. More specifically, this rule has become more of a box-checking routine then an actual exercise in promoting diversity. For example, if an NFL owner is inherently racist, the Rooney Rule will certainly not make an impact on this owner’s ultimate hiring decision. This owner will simply interview one (or two, depending on the position) minority candidates to satisfy the rule’s requirements and then move on without giving this minority candidate fair consideration. One prime example of the Rooney Rule’s recent fruitlessness is the Oakland Raiders’ 2018 hiring of head coach Jon Gruden. On December 24, 2017, Raiders owner Mark Davis met with Gruden (who is white) to discuss a potential union—this was during the middle of the Raiders’ season, and Jack Del Rio was still employed as head coach (Reid). Then, on December 31, Davis fired Del Rio to clear the way for Gruden. In the few days that followed, the Raiders interviewed two black candidates—tight ends coach Bobby Johnson and University of Southern California offensive coordinator Tee Martin. On January 6, Jon Gruden was officially introduced as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders. What was the problem? Mark Davis had already committed to hiring Gruden before interviewing the other two candidates. Bobby Johnson and Tee Martin never had a chance; Mark Davis himself detailed how Gruden agreed on a deal before Del Rio was even fired, and how he never had any interest in hiring anyone else for the job (Reid).

Pictured: Raiders head coach Jon Gruden (left) and owner Mark Davis. Is this a prime example of the similar-to-me effect?

Moreover, I believe it makes sense to classify the NFL’s diversity in coaching issue as an ownership issue rather than a league issue. While all league owners cannot be grouped into one single category in terms of their views on hiring practices, the reality is that the power of the Rooney Rule resides collectively in the team owners. So, not only is the recent ineffectiveness of the Rooney Rule unsurprising, it was actually expected by experts in the field. Stefanie Johnson, an associate professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder has extensively studied diversity and unconscious bias, and released a paper examining the Rooney Rule in 2018. Johnson describes the “similar-to-me-effect” as an important factor that often plays a silent role in how individuals are hired. Essentially, if we have a healthy self-esteem and view ourselves as effective workers, we are more likely to seek out candidates who are similar to us (Steele). So, if a woman who went to Harvard was a hiring manager, for example, she would be likely to view another woman who went to Harvard more favorably than a man who graduated from The Ohio State University. How does this idea relate to the diversity issues in the NFL? Only two of the NFL’s 32 owners are people of color. Additionally, 22 of the 32 teams have been owned by the same person or family for the past twenty or more years (Paine).

Undoubtedly, this lack of diversity among organizational owners has contributed to the lack of diversity among coaches and front office employees in recent years and years past. Johnson argues that the similar-to-me effect results in even more issues than the surface-level lack of diversity. When employers (or owners, in this case) hire candidates with the same background and experience, these candidates are likely to make the same types of mistakes as the individuals who hired them. In addition, these mistakes are more likely to be amplified and repeated as well. NFL owners would be less likely to make mistakes with a diversified decision-making team rather than a homogenous one. So, to re-address the question of why the Rooney Rule is ineffective, Johnson theorizes that interviewing only one minority candidate (as the old/original) version of the rule required) was the issue. Statistically, interviewing one minority candidate per head coaching search would result in a hiring rate of somewhere between zero and five percent. However, when teams interview at least two minority coaches, that rate rises to 33 percent (Steele). This significant difference in hiring rates is now reflected in the new version of the Rooney Rule, which requires two minority candidates to be interviewed. But will this amendment to the rule actually have its intended effect? I believe that it will not. The original version of the Rooney Rule did not work because the single minority candidates that were interviewed were typically only interviewed to satisfy the requirements of the rule. Although Johnson found that the hiring rate for minority candidates has been drastically higher when two minority head coaching hopefuls were interviewed rather than just one, I believe this new requirement will be just that: a requirement. Instead of having its intended effect, this regulation will simply result in teams checking off two boxes instead of one. While I understand the purpose and utility behind these changes, it seems that diversity in the NFL will not improve until the issue is addressed at its ownership-based roots. Due to the similar-to-me effect, coaching hires will continue to reflect the systemic dysfunction with the NFL’s power structure. As has been constant in the past, white owners will continue to hire white coaches, and the Rooney Rule will act as a minor nuisance in the hiring process.

Pictured: Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores. Flores is one of four minority head coaches in the NFL in 2020.

This perpetual cycle begs the question: is this tendency of white owners to hire white owners racist? There are two potential positions. On one hand, it could be argued that owners are not blatantly refusing to consider and hire minority candidates. These owners are simply choosing to hire the individuals who they believe will be the best coaches; often, these individuals just happen to share similar qualifications and experience with their future bosses. Sure, these owners are not hiring minority candidates. But they are not refusing to, either. Viewing this issue from another angle, it could be argued that the tendency to hire individuals similar to yourself is inherently racist. Regardless of intentionality and consciousness, the tendency of white owners to favor white candidates is, fundamentally, racist. For years, not only in the NFL but across all areas of business, this tendency has prevailed, indicating that systemic racism plays a role in how individuals are selected for prominent positions in the United States. Which argument is correct? I believe that both are, to some extent. Almost unfailingly, NFL owners will attempt to hire the candidate who they believe will be the best coach. Winning more games correlates to raking in more money, which is always at the forefront of a professional sports team owner’s mind. However, this will never remove the asterisk associated with the similar-to-me effect, as owners will tend to favor candidates similar to themselves, whether they intend to or not. Overall, although owners will attempt to hire the best candidate for an open coaching position, their inherent bias will cause them to select candidates similar to themselves, perpetuating the cycle of systemic racism that has plagued the NFL—and the United States—since its inception.

Works Cited

Beer, T. (2020, May 19). The NFL Enhances Rooney Rule In Effort To Increase Diversity, But Backs Away From A Controversial Proposed Change. Retrieved November 09, 2020, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/05/19/the-nfl-announces-adjustments-to-the-rooney-rule-but-backs-away-from-a-controversial-proposed-change/?sh=330de94162e9

Paine, N. (2020, January 14). The Rooney Rule Isn’t Working Anymore. Retrieved November 09, 2020, from https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-rooney-rule-isnt-working-anymore/

Reid, J. (2018, January 22). NFL effectively shows it will no longer enforce Rooney Rule. Retrieved November 09, 2020, from https://theundefeated.com/features/nfl-shows-it-will-no-longer-enforce-rooney-rule/

Steele, M. (2020, January 21). Can analytics fix the Rooney Rule? Retrieved November 09, 2020, from https://theundefeated.com/features/can-analytics-fix-the-rooney-rule/