The Effectiveness of the NFL’s Rooney Rule

The Rooney Rule in the NFL was created in order to create an atmosphere of racial equality and fairness when relating to hiring practices. The general consensus on the Rooney Rule is that it has been successful so far, but there is still a lot to do in order to counteract racial bias when it comes to hiring employees. After nine years of validation, it is still yet to be seen if the Rooney Rule has made changes to the NFL. This research explores the positions of Offensive Coordinator, Defensive Coordinator, and General Manager in all 32 NFL franchises to determine if the implementation of the Rooney Rule has impacted the racial diversity of those holding the positions. The effectiveness of the Rooney Rule can is measured by not only the impact that the rule has had on positions that require an interview for minority candidates, but also the “trickledown” effect for those positions that do not require a minority candidate interview for a vacancy. Aspects of racism, reverse racism, and Title VII are used to contextualize the findings. Of the positions that were analyzed, only General Manager showed a significant increase in minority held positions. Document Type Undergraduate Project Professor's Name Emily Dane-Staples Subject Categories Sports Management This undergraduate project is available at Fisher Digital Publications: http://fisherpub.sjfc. edu/sport_undergrad/25 Running Head: The National Football League’s Rooney Rule The Effectiveness of the NFL’s Rooney Rule Matthew Welker St. John Fisher College 2 THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE’S ROONEY RULE Abstract The Rooney Rule in the NFL was created in order to create an atmosphere of racial equality and fairness when relating to hiring practices. The general consensus on the Rooney Rule is that it has been successful so far, but there is still a lot to do in order to counteract racial bias when it comes to hiring employees. After nine years of validation, it is still yet to be seen if the Rooney Rule has made changes to the NFL. This research explores the positions of Offensive Coordinator, Defensive Coordinator, and General Manager in all 32 NFL franchises to determine if the implementation of the Rooney Rule has impacted the racial diversity of those holding the positions. The effectiveness of the Rooney Rule can is measured by not only the impact that the rule has had on positions that require an interview for minority candidates, but also the “trickledown” effect for those positions that do not require a minority candidate interview for a vacancy. Aspects of racism, reverse racism, and Title VII are used to contextualize the findings. Of the positions that were analyzed, only General Manager showed a significant increase in minority held positions. 3 THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE’S ROONEY RULE The Effectiveness of the NFL’s Rooney Rule In 1947, Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers broke the color barrier or Major League Baseball becoming the first African American athlete to play at the highest level of professional baseball in the United States in the modern era (Collins, 2007). Since that day, the world of sport has been a stage for the struggle for equality between races in America’s work place (Collins, 2007). In the years since the integration of minority athletes onto the playing field of professional sport leagues, minority coaches and front office positions have slowly been filled by minority candidates (Madden, 2004). While leagues have made some progress towards integrating minority coaches and front office personnel in major professional sporting leagues, it is the opinion of many that there is still a long way to go (Goff & Tollison, 2009). One of the most controversial initiatives instated to promote the equality and advancement of minority candidates being considered for head coaching and football operations positions in the National Football League was the Rooney Rule (Collins, 2007). Since the inception of the Rooney Rule in 2002, some experts say that the initiative has vastly improved the interview and hiring practices of the NFL (Madden & Ruther, 2010). Other parties however feel that the Rooney rule is a form of reverse racism and “tokenism”, where the minority candidates are actually suffering from getting an interview for a position that they have no chance of obtaining (Maravent, 2006). This leads to the debate of whether or not the Rooney Rule has made advancements in the field of minority hiring, or if in fact there are some affirmative action consequences that arise by forcing NFL franchises to interview a minority candidate. This can also bring up the issue of whether or not the Rooney Rule has had a positive impact on the NFL since its inception in 2002 and what is the reason for the resulted consequence. Another result may indicate whether or not the Rooney Rule has any affirmative action implications in the form of reverse racism. Last, why is the NFL so slow in advancing in the field of minority hiring, when leagues like the NBA and MLB have made massive strides without any sort of forcing hiring practices (Kahn, 2004)? 4 THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE’S ROONEY RULE Literature Review The idea of racial equality in hiring practices of the NFL is an extremely important aspect of the way that the league not only runs, but also promotes itself as a global entity. The NFL has built itself as a global business with earning upwards of $9 billion in revenue for the 2010 season. The way that the league presents itself not only to its consumers is extremely essential, but also the protection from class action law suits relating to affirmative action and minority discrimination is a huge issue (Collins, 2007). While other leagues have made strides in the field of minority hiring and equality, the NFL is still behind, in terms of percentages of minority head coaches and front office positions compared to other sports (Kahn, 2006). So in order to determine if NFL is on the right track to achieving a more diverse it is necessary to investigate the leagues initial diversity policy to see if it is effective. On the other hand, it is important to see if there are any sort of underlying affirmative action issues that may arise from teams holding interviews for minorities just to fill a quota, even if there is not actual intention of ever hiring the candidate (Goff & Tollison, 2009). Lastly, it is required to see if there are reasons that minority coaches are not hired while their white equals continue to be hired and retained at an overwhelming rate. In 2004, a Lawrence Kahn study examined the retention factors of NBA coaches between 1996 and 2003. He looked at different factors such as record, race, pay, performance, and community value (Kahn, 2004). Kahn determined that there was very small statistical proof that differentiated race when determining retention of any coach. There have been studies, such as those done by Madden, that have indicated that minority coaches in the NFL have been on a “shorter leash” because of their skin color (Madden, 2004). This is just another example of how the NFL continues to struggle in terms of racial hiring and firing practices when relating to their coaches (Kahn, 2004) The NBA and the NFL have a similar percentage of minority players that make up their franchise. The NBA however, has a similar percentage of minority players compared to minority coaches as a part of their organizations. However, 5 THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE’S ROONEY RULE the NFL, even though they have similar minority player percentages to the number of minority coaches, lack significantly in the percentages of minority coaches compared to minority players. With the start of the new millennium, the NFL and the NBA were heading in two opposite directions in terms of minority hiring of head coaches (Collins, 2007). During the 2001-2002 seasons, 78 percent of the leagues players were African American but 48 percent of the head coaches were also African American. In comparison, the NFL’s rosters were made up of 65 percent African American players, but only six percent of the coaches were minorities. This means that of the 32 head coaching positions, only two were held by African American coaches, even though the league’s players made up well over half of the player population (Collins, 2007). While the coaching structure of the NFL is much more complex than the NBA, it seems that there was a clear cultural bias that was prevalent in the NFL that was not the same in its counterpart. In the NFL, there are an increased number of coaches who hold a much more significant amount of say in the overall game plan and execution of the game plan. This leads to a much greater amount of opportunities for power struggles within the coaching ranks to arise. Therefore, the connection of performance based incentives and job security based on performance should be much more prevalent in the landscape of assistant coaching jobs at the professional level. A Title VII Lawsuit would be extremely detrimental to the NFL because of not only the monetary loses that the league could face, but the publicity and potential lack of fans and overall revenue that could be lost if the NFL were to be ruled “racist” in a court of law (Collins, 2007). Overall in the NFL, there are more positional coaches then there are in either the NBA or MLB. For example, on NFL coaching staffs you will have a coach for each position such as quarterback coach, running back coach, wide receiver coach, and offensive line coach, along with head coordinators on each side of the football (offense and defense). However in the NBA and MLB, there are no positional based coaches such as point guard coach or short stop coach. There are only coaches who hold larger positions such as hitting coach or pitching coach. Along with that issue, there are most starting players and larger rosters 6 THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE’S ROONEY RULE in the NFL. For each NFL roster there are 22 starters on offense and defe