The NFL has clearly felt that the Rooney Rule encouraging minority hires is not doing enough to achieve its stated purpose. Subsequently, it appears the league is prepared to offer even greater incentives to facilitate more minority hires.
The league is set to propose two significant rule changes tomorrow in a conference call with owners. The first is that teams will no longer be able to block assistants from interviewing for coordinator jobs. The second—and this is wild—would grant teams improved draft position for hiring and retaining black coaches or general managers.
A team hiring a minority head coach would see their third-round pick improve by six spots after the coach’s first season. Anyone hiring a minority GM would see their third-round pick move up 10 spots. In other words, a team could theoretically move up 16 spots in the draft by hiring a minority coach and GM in the same offseason.
And set race relations back 16 years in the process.
I mean what better way to say I am hiring you only because you are black and we want better draft picks.
- In addition, there will be incentives for teams to keep minority hires. The team’s fourth-round pick would rise by five spots before the minority coach or GM’s third season.
- Frustration among black coaches boiled over this offseason after Washington's Ron Rivera was the only minority hired as a head coach. It led to promises of change, and these proposed new rules would be a major shift that could influence teams’ thinking.
Source:NFL.com (photo courtesy of Getty Images)