How about interviewing the best qualified candidates instead of being forced to consider someone? Also why not force teams to interview everyone including Asians, Hispanics, midgets, gay people, Native Americans, etc?
Which would mean the Rooney Rule is fatally flawed.
I remember years ago Mike Singletary was the âtokenâ interview for a ton of teams, then he finally got a job and failed miserably.
The problem isnât race, it is the system. There are way too many retreads because nobody wants to take a risk on a new guy.
Hell Romeo Crennell got three chances and he was horrific.
I disagree. As of now five of the nine open head-coaching vacancies have been filled. Four of the five have been filled by people with no previous head-coaching experience.
The problem is that some teams teams tend to hone in on one candidate without really considering others, and when that happens more often than not it is not a minority candidate. One exception was in 2002 when the Indianapolis Colts honed in on Tony Dungy and did not consider anybody else.
Casting a wide net can sometimes benefit an organization. Everybody knows the story about how the Steelers hired Mike Tomlin after many assumed that in-house assistant Russ Grimm would get the job. Tomlin was hired because he was given an opportunity to really interview and really impressed the Steelers. Had they decided on Grimm and just gone through the motions with Tomlin, that would not have happened.
The same thing happened with my team, the Buffalo Bills, only the races were reversed. Anthony Lynn was hired as the interim coach for the Bills for the last game of 2016 and many felt he was the front-runner to get the full-time job. The Bills conducted a wide-ranging search and Sean McDermott really impressed the ownership, just as Tomlin had impressed the Steelers. That is how a coaching search should go.
And, Lynn was subsequently hired by the Chargers, who had a much better personnel situation but were admittedly dealing with the Los Angeles move. Still, when one compares the records of McDermott and Lynn, it is hard to say that the Bills made the wrong decision.
And, to go back to the Giants position, Brian Daboll made more sense than Brian Flores. The Giants want to see if Daniel Jones can still be their franchise quarterback, and with what Daboll did with Josh Allen in Buffalo he made perfect sense. Still, from what I read, Daboll was the only offensive candidate to be interviewed, while all others were defensive coaches. That made no sense at all.
And the Giants push back.
By the way, what has taken affluent blacks so long to step up to the plate for NFL team ownerships?
There are That many people with $4B or more, very few who are black. Most have other priorities. And even if interested, they have to get two thirds approval from the other owners, all white.
Latest rumor is the black billionaire in Denver is not interested.
First, an NFL team must go up for sale. Second, NFL franchises are not exactly cheap. Most recently, the Carolina Panthers sold for $2.275 billion. The Denver Broncos are about to go up for sale, and estimates for that franchiseâs sales price are at $4 billion. There are not a whole lot of people, period, who can afford an NFL franchise.
Then, once an agreement to purchase a franchise is reached the NFL will first do its due diligence on the purchasing groupâs finances and then must approve the sale. Neither is automatic, as the NFL does not want underfunded owernship.
Several years ago a gentleman named Reggie Fowler wanted to be the general partner for a group that purchased the Minnesota Vikings. However, his finances did not stand up to scrutiny, and he was instead a limited partner.
Actually, it is three-fourths approval. This article discusses that:
There are also rules governing individual ownership requirements plus debt limits. From the article:
N.F.L. ownership rules say that only individuals can buy a team â so no corporate partnerships or funds â and that the general partner has to put up at least 30 percent of the purchase price, which runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars. The buyer is also limited in the amount that can be borrowed.
As for the comment about all of the owners being white, Kim Pegula, the wife of Terry Pegula, is ethnic Korean. They own the Buffalo Bills. And, more to the point, I doubt the NFL will keep any owner out simply because of his or her race. They would, however, keep certain people out if they felt they were bad for the business of the league or could be embarrassing, etc. As one example:
https://www.sportscasting.com/rush-limbaughs-hopes-of-owning-an-nfl-team-didnt-go-far-with-roger-goodell/
Always about race prejudice, isnât it? Tyler Perry, Oprah Winfrey, a rapper, any could start as a limited partner if they wanted. Many teams have more than one owner. But no, that would eliminate something to harp on in claiming âinstitutional racism.â
As woke as the NFL is, they would blackball a black guy wanting to be an owner? Give me a break, buddy.
Is it your presumption that white owners would vote against any potential black owner?
Whether Flores and others have a case or not, bad timing and poor responses have made this a pretty miserable week for an NFL who should be having their best week following the excellent playoff exposure they got.
You know, even as I was writing that, I wondered if I had the % right, but laziness won out. Thanks for the correction.
Not really. But it is an old boys club and they like people who fit in. There arenât that many black billionaires, but I suspect theyâd be OK with one.
Most people I know care about one color, green.
Hard for anybody to get into that club.
Perfect response.
Makes sense. White guys who politicize their sport as far as a âracial bias end zoneâ (canât remember the exact term) would risk the bad publicity of blackballing potential black partners.
With one female, Martha Ford.
Virginia Halas McCaskey owns the Bears.
Thereâs solid evidence that a Flores can be both a successful player and coach. The defense rests. 