Bribery in the NFL

As a general rule, I try to stay out of politics in sports. They are nothing more than minefields for the unaware.

But something the National Football League is now strongly considering has caused me to temporarily break that rule. Hopefully, I will not regret it.

The hiring of minorities – or lack of same – for important high-ranking positions in the league has been a sensitive subject for many years.

The Rooney Rule, adopted by the league in 2003, requires every team with a head coaching, general manager or other front-office vacancy to interview at least one minority in order to increase diversity at those levels.

It has been spectacularly unsuccessful. Currently, there are only four head coaches (Anthony Lynn of the Los Angels Chargers, Miami’s Brian Flores, Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh and Washington’s Ron Rivera) and two general managers of color (Andrew Berry with the Browns and Chris Grier in Miami).

And now the league is considering a plan to further give league ownership even more reason to seriously consider hiring a minority at high-profile levels. It arrives in the form of an enhancement to accomplish the goal of increasing diversity.

The plan – it is being called a modification of the Rooney Rule – would use football currency as an incentive. In other words, draft picks. If passed by the owners, it would work this way:

Hire a minority head coach and your team automatically moves up six slots from your regular slot in the third round of the lottery the following year, Hire a minority general manager and your team moves up 10 slots. Hire both and you hit the jackpot: 16 slots.

Other incentives: If a minority quarterbacks coach is hired, the reward is a fourth-round compensatory pick; if the minority GM and/or coach lasts at least three years, a fourth-round choice gains five slots.

Proponents of the plan call it incentivizing. I call it bribery with the league desperate enough to use it as an incentive to get things moving.  The proposed move elicits an interesting question: What is more important to an owner, moving up in the draft or hiring the right man?

It is embarrassing to the league and the potential minority head coach and general manager candidates that the plan resorts to using draft capital as a bribe to encourage teams to hire them.

Well the original plan is not working, argue those seeking an equitable solution. That’s where the desperation part enters the picture with the draft.

In an effort to make it a little more difficult for teams to adhere to the Rooney Rule, it is being reported teams now will be required to interview at least two minority candidates for head coach and at least one for a coordinator position.

It is entirely possible the Rooney Rule might never work as it was meant to. And that is unfortunate because there are a large number of candidates for high-ranking positions out there more than qualified to move up.

If the owners accept the plan, it is entirely possible the number of minority hires will increase. It is also entirely possible minority coaches hired because of the draft incentives will face unwarranted pressure to succeed.

Is there a solution that will make all sides happy? That’s a question that might never be answered.