Owners' Thought Process & the Rooney Rule

The mere mention of race in sports sends many of us into a tizzy. Sports are supposed to help us escape the daily travails of modern life by being above them, right?

Yet since we’re talking about an industry that is dominated by minority participants, the conversations are inevitable. The makeup of an NFL team doesn’t resemble that of almost every place of employment in the United States. This comes from an evolution of thinking; from thinking that non-whites have no place in the game to thinking that non-whites can’t be middle linebackers to thinking that non-whites can’t be quarterbacks. The third to last step of progress, it seems, is allowing them the chance to become head coaches (Commissioner and team owner being the final two).

The Rooney Rule has helped change the dynamics a bit, but as the recent hires in Seattle and Washington prove, there’s still some work to be done. We need to be honest with ourselves here when it comes to the Rule; beyond debating the merits of affirmative action/alleged reverse discrimination and required-but-fruitless interviews. The rule was put in place because qualified minority candidates were not considered for such tenuous positions.

In a sport where these leading managers are treated more like fast food fry cooks until “The One” comes to save the franchise, you would have thought many dues-paying position coaches and coordinators would have been gobbled up in efforts to changes fortunes of many teams. Yet, especially in the preceding seasons before the Rule was adopted in 2003, many middling retreads were rehired to be fired rather quickly.

Every franchise has changed head coaches at least once since 1994, yet since the interim tag was removed for Jeff Fisher in 1995, the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans are the only team in the NFL to have had one person at the helm. Since 1996 to be specific, there have been 96 head coaching changes, which in turn resulted in countless changes in the coordinator and specialty coaching positions.

The average team has changed head coaches slightly over three times – 3.09677419354839 to be exact – in the last fourteen years, including ongoing changes after the conclusion of the 2009 season. The Oakland Raiders will likely have their seventh different head coach in this span if Al Davis does fire Tom Cable as expected, yet fourteen different franchises have had at least four different head coaches during this period.

Ninety-six different introductory press conferences is a staggering number. Absolutely staggering.

Many people connected to the NFL believe that the Rooney Rule will only gain teeth if the league truly investigates and penalizes teams for meeting the requirements just for show. In addition, despite extending the policy to include senior football operation positions (General Managers, essentially), there are calls to look into coordinators and other members of the coaching staff to truly give the Rule wide sweeping effectiveness.

Yet, there will always be an issue with the Rooney Rule not only for racial reasons, but because there will always been such high turnover among head coaches. Ideally, the Rule exists because of such instability. The fact that owners and fans have thin patience and even thinner triggers shows that there will be more opportunities. Many owners suffer from “I want what he’s got” syndrome, proving the adage that the NFL is a copycat league. Yet, others seem to have issues beyond patience. Woody Johnson and Daniel Snyder believe in big, splashy hires. Al Davis & the McCaskey family don’t want to pay anyone big bucks. Ralph Wilson can’t seem to find the right mix of personnel and philosophy. Jerry Jones just wants someone to not show him up, even when things are good (see Johnson, Jimmy).

As much as all candidates should be given greater consideration, it’s extremely difficult to legislate what’s on the minds of these owners. For various reasons – quick financial windfalls being the biggest along with ego – they will go after proven head coaches more often than not. It takes a lot for an owner to decide to take a chance on someone who had never managed an entire team at this level before, regardless of ethnic makeup. It takes just as much for that owner to take his or her lumps in the beginning to find long-term success. Maybe that’s what may happen with Tampa Bay and Raheem Morris; rumored to have been canned after one season though the Buccaneers do not have the horses in the stable.

We look at Mike Tomlin for the Pittsburgh Steelers as a sign that the Rule works, even though the namesake of the provision, the Rooney family, owns the team. There’s a strong culture in the organization that allowed for him to find success, as there was for Tony Dungy to steward the Indianapolis Colts to a Super Bowl title. Yet, no rule, no matter how great the intentions, will make an impact if these teams and owners don’t stop becoming case studies of chaos, mismanagement and impatience.

Say What?!?!: Better insights from Roy S. Johnson. The comments, however, go from atrocious to even worse.

Impatient (II)

There was going to be a true, legitimate part two of Impatient. However, as it is done in football, the play was under review and overturned.

For starters, a conversation at work led to some crazy moment when a light came on and my bosses said I should run with the idea. It remains with the theme of ownership impatience, but it needs more corroborative source than, say, me.

However, while watching winds wreak havoc on kickers at the Eagles - Giants game, I ran into an interesting story (via The Sports Economist and Newmark's Door) from Slate. Ryan McCarthy believes that just because NBA teams fire coaches - bringing joy to fans and media opining for change they can believe in - it doesn't mean that their problems are solved. He actually tries to figure out what an NBA head coach actually does and how players may or may not respond to his style.

The Sports Economist makes a correlation to coaching salaries in both the NBA and college football. It's easy to figure that the dollars that coaches are getting play a major role in the quick hooks these days by owners and school administrators.

The series and these links deserve far more attention, but at the moment, so does this hard-hitting battle in East Rutheford.

Until this evening...

Impatient (I)

There’s a little whining here as of late, which is not the intent of Scribe. However, I’m flabbergasted – yes, flabbergasted – by the impatience that has grown by the nanosecond in the sports culture as we know it today.

In 2008, 685,000 head coaches were essentially fired. Okay, more like 684,923.

NBA: Sam Mitchell (Toronto), Eddie Jordan (Washington), P.J. Carlisemo (Oklahoma City), Isiah Thomas (New York), Flip Saunders (Detroit), Avery Johnson (Dallas), Sam Vincent (Charlotte), Jim Boylan and Scott Skiles (Chicago)

NFL: Mike Nolan (San Francisco), Scott Linehan (St. Louis), Lane Kiffin (Oakland), Cam Cameron (Miami), Brian Billick (Baltimore)

MLB: Sam Perlozzo (Baltimore), Jim Riggleman (Seattle), John Gibbons (Toronto), Willie Randolph (New York Mets) and Ned Yost (Milwaukee)

NHL: Damn near everybody in the last two years has been canned at least once – Peter Laviolette (Carolina), Denis Savard (Chicago), Barry Melrose (Tampa Bay), Ted Nolan (New York Islanders), Ron Wilson (San Jose), Joel Quenneville (Colorado), John Paddock (Ottawa) and Paul Maurice (Toronto)

College football: Tommy Tuberville (Auburn), Sylvester Croom (Mississippi State), Phil Fullmer (Tennessee), Ron Prince (Kansas State), Tommy Bowden (Clemson), Tyrone Willingham (Washington), Greg Robinson (Syracuse), Rocky Long (New Mexico), Brent Guy (Utah State), Joe Glenn (Wyoming), Hal Mumme (New Mexico State), Shane Montgomery (Miami of Ohio), Jeff Genyk (Eastern Michigan) and Gregg Bandon (Bowling Green)

College basketball: You know what? There are too many to type. As mentioned the other day, there are six billion D-1 programs, all with the high hopes of winning the national title.

This may make you dizzy, and it should. If these teams and schools could, would the place job opening ads on Monster.com or Craigslist?

Yet, it makes me wonder why these owners and school presidents are so impatient?

Now, there are a handful of these men who lost the helm who may have well-earned their pink slips. Yet, for the rest of these managers and coaches, it’s as if their bosses have told them “I know I just hired you and all, but it’s been two weeks and we haven’t won a championship, so you’re fired.”

You’re not going to have situations like what we have with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Utah Jazz, Atlanta Braves, Penn State’s football program or Duke’s men’s basketball team where either the owner stands solid with one suited leader or the school made their coach an institution. To have that means that the bosses believe that he is capable of not only finding the right mix of players, assistants and an effective system, but is capable of weathering some storms for brighter days.

However, what some of these folks are doing is beyond rational.

For example, Savard was relieved of his duties just four games into the Blackhawks’ season. Even for the NHL, a league where the turnover of coaches and general managers is akin to fry cooks at McDonald’s, this was pretty extreme.

After one year at the helm and replacing Bernie Bickerstaff for the Bobcats’ 2007-08 NBA season, Vincent, in his first coaching gig, was canned by His Airness for His Flightiness. It’s not as if these ‘Cats were dominating the Eastern Conference; home to a roster that has battled injuries and the typical ups and downs of young players.

Then, there’s Yost, who may have ticked off owner Mark Attanasio so much, that he didn’t see the Brewers capture their first playoff appearance in 25 years. The man was tossed just before the final week of the season.

Finally, there’s Willie.

The next couple of posts will explain a couple of theories why there is so much change with the team lieutenants these days. However, what are your thoughts? Do you think coaches are fired too quickly or not quickly enough?