An advocacy group is now questioning whether racism played a part in the Raiders’ hire of Jon Gruden as their next head coach.
The Fritz Pollard Alliance Foundation has asked the NFL to investigate the team’s hiring process to determine whether or not the Rooney Rule was violated. The Rooney Rule is a league policy that requires teams to interview minority candidates for vacant head coaching and executive positions.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, not only did the Raiders interview two minorities for their head coaching vacancy, the Fritz Pollard Alliance Foundation already acknowledged the team’s compliance with the Rooney Rule.
But apparently the group has back peddled from that stance after new reports suggest that Gruden and the Raiders may have had an agreement in place dating back to Christmas Eve (even before coach Jack Del Rio was fired). This has led some to question whether owner Mark Davis took the minority candidates he interviewed seriously, or just went through the motions of the Rooney Rule.
The idea of the Rooney Rule is credited to a 2002 report, put together in part by O.J Simpson’s “Dream Team” lawyer Johnny Cochran.
Here’s an idea. The NFL should just abolish the Rooney Rule.
Does it really have the positive impact we’re supposed to believe? Do you think that by forcing NFL owners to interview minorities, that it actually improves their chance for hire?
If the Fritz Pollard Alliance Foundation really wants to find out whether or not Raiders’ owner Mark Davis has racial bias, they should just look at the franchise’s hiring history.
Mark’s late-father Al Davis made Tom Flores the first Latino head coach ever. Al Davis also hired Art Shell, the first black head coach in the modern era. Hell, the team even drafted JaMarcus Russell (a minority) #1 overall in the 2007 draft, in hopes that he would become the face of the franchise. In 2011, the Raiders hired Hue Jackson (a minority) as head coach in 2011. The following year, Davis hired Reggie McKenzie (a minority) as general manager.
It’s time for these so-called “advocacy groups” to start investing less time and energy towards spreading a victimhood mentality, opting instead for personal accountability and discipline.
The NFL combine doesn’t have racial guidelines. Why should NFL coaching?