Revisiting the Rooney Rule

Elsewhere, aspiring head coach Marvin Lewis had struggled to catch on in the league despite a sterling resume as defensive coordinator for the 2000 Baltimore Ravens. That is, until Lewis landed the head coaching job in Cincinnati in 2003, the year the Rooney Rule went into effect.

With all this said, it’s worth mentioning that the Rooney Rule has several provisions, many that have accounted for situations when a contract guaranteed a job for an assistant coach when a head coaching vacancy opened at the conclusion of a season. And only recently has the Rooney Rule been amended to ensure a certain quota of minority coaches league-wide.

Clearly, the Rooney Rule has been a success in providing minority head coaching candidates an opportunity to make their case to teams who otherwise would continue promoting familiar faces from within. And we don’t have to look far for prime examples of Rooney Rule success stories. Despite never winning a playoff game, Marvin Lewis walked away from Cincinnati with a winning record. And Mike Tomlin’s resume speaks for itself, though Art Rooney Jr has insisted current Washington Commanders head coach Ron Rivera fulfilled the Rooney Rule requirements in that fateful 2007 offseason. Regardless, there’s no question Tomlin has benefitted from pioneering efforts made by the likes of the Rooneys to ensure fair and equitable hiring practices.

But there are many troubling comparisons to be made between 2002 and now. It’s now 2022, two whole decades since the Rooney Rule inception, and there is still much work to be done.

Two years ago, Kansas City offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy was passed over for head coaching opportunities despite his impressive qualifications and achievements as play-caller for Patrick Mahomes. Given his resume and reputation for orchestrating the league’s top offensive attack, one would’ve assumed Bieniemy a shoe-in for most head coaching vacancies in the past few years, just as Marvin Lewis was thought to be a shoe-in following the Ravens’ run of defensive dominance in the early 2000s.

Now in 2022, legal challenges have been brought forth by current Steelers linebackers coach and defensive assistant Brian Flores, who has alleged that recent interviews for head coaching jobs were a farce meant only to fulfill the Rooney Rule. Since the allegations first surfaced in February, NFL coaches Steve Wilks and Ray Horton have filed claims joining Flores’ class action lawsuit, stating that they were brought in by teams conducting sham interviews.

In the long whirlwind saga this creates for everyone involved, Art Rooney Jr believes the NFL will continue to amend and improve the Rooney Rule rather than scrap it altogether. After all, not only does it bear his name and with it, a measure of his family’s reputation, but the Rule itself was enacted with the best intentions, and no one would have foreseen this figurative Pandora’s Box of consequences. Only now has the Rooney Rule been formally alleged to be manipulated by teams who’ve disregarded the equitable hiring practices it put forth. Whether that’s indicative of systemic racism in the league or not is still up for debate. Regardless, that’s what the Rooney Rule was meant to combat.

Internally, the Steelers acknowledge the awkwardness that is created with Brian Flores hired to the coaching staff. In a somewhat off-handed comment, Art Rooney Jr stated that the lawsuit can create “an awkward situation at times,” a sense of tension and stress that will perhaps trickle its way down to players. In the early stages of this offseason, we’re left to only wonder and insinuate. As training camp comes along, we’ll have a better sense of the awkwardness brought upon the Steelers and their players, who will no doubt be asked for their own opinions on the matter.

However, as is generally the case in Pittsburgh, there is no greater salvation than winning, and Flores has proven that he can win and succeed in difficult situations. The same is true with Mike Tomlin, who has demonstrated leadership and accountability in the past when faced with his own controversies, from attempting to trip up Jacoby Jones in Baltimore or handling - of mishandling - the Antonio Brown saga.

For now, we can only glean the benefits this creates for the Steelers as a team and as an organization. For one, Flores on the staff has proven to be a tremendous recruiting tool. Recently-acquired Steelers linebacker Myles Jack has stated that he and Flores have “something to prove” this year.

"I feel like we kind of vibed about that connection,” Jack said. “I'm very excited to work with him and just see what I can learn and see how we can collaborate to make this thing go."

Where exactly things go from here is up to the combined efforts of the Steelers. After all, it’s only a game, a game that just so happens to have multiple undercurrent issues of race, class and politics. There’s no simple answer for either the Steelers, the NFL or the fluid state of the Rooney Rule. But winning is the name of the game. The Steelers can be absolved and move on from this somewhat self-imposed awkwardness if they commit to moving forward, leaving legal matters in the courtroom, and winning as a team.