Saying I wouldn’t trade him for anybody was a bit hyperbolic in Tomlin’s case. On the college side, I truly wouldn’t trade Saban for anyone in college coaching today–for obvious reasons. But it’s true that I wouldn’t trade Tomlin for either of the Harbaughs because I don’t like the way they operate on a personal level, although I like the system Jim runs. Would I trade Tomlin for Belichick? Yeah, if Belichick were younger. I’m a Parcells fan and like most of the coaches from that tree, though Belichick is the best.

I was raised on Bear Bryant and lean toward coaches who come from the defensive side of the ball and play smashmouth. Tomlin’s got that personality, and Haley runs that offense. Yes, I see some issues. But with two Super Bowl appearances since Tomlin’s arrival, I’m more inclined than you to view our glass as half full.

Maybe there are not a lot of qualified African-American head coach candidates?

Romeo? No.
Lovie? No.
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You must be insane. Lovie is not qualified to be a head coach?? But John Fox is? Jeff Fisher is? Andy Reid is? What nonsense.

If they are qualified, they would be hired, if they are not qualified, they won’t be hired.

That’s where the process can best be changed. From current coaches giving more meaningful opportunities to defensive assistant coaches (such as play-calling duties on offense) to General Managers casting a wider net when interviewing candidates to teams being prevented from satisfying their thirst for offense by interviewing offense-minded coaches to the media doing a better job of highlighting qualified defense-minded candidates, real changes are needed in order to improve the problem.

Here’s hoping they choose to do the right thing before they have to.

So now the NFL wants it to be “Best person for the job, but also has to be black?” Can’t have it both ways guys!

So the way I see it is, if minorities want more HC opportunities then the best route seems to be becoming a QB coach then an OC. So the focus I think should be on how do more minorities get opportunities to be QB coaches because honestly, I don’t even know a single QB coach that’s a minority. Then once that issue is addressed, they need to figure out how to get more minorities opportunities as OC’s.

The problem now is that people are focussed on HC jobs and the lack of minorities getting serious consideration for HC positions when the real issue is down the ladder with the lack of minority QB coaches and minority OC’s. At least that’s the way that I see it.

Again, the league is trending heavily toward the offense but a lot of the top minority candidates are on the defensive side and teams just don’t seem to want to hire defensive guys as HC’s. So if we want to see a larger, more qualified pool of minority candidates then I think the league needs to figure out how to get more minority QB coaches and more minority OC’s.

You know in just 4 short years it will have been 8 years since we had a white President too…

Mike Tomlin was only interviewed by the Steelers to satisfy the Rooney Rule.

They had already assured Ken Whisenhunt he was their guy. But after interviewing Tomlin they changed their mind and hired him.

The Rooney Rule worked.

Minority candidates simply asked for the opportunity to be interviewed, knowing if they could just make their case some would be hired, and some were.
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The Steelers never assured Whis he was their guy. Rumor had it they told Cowher’s offensive line coach Russ Grimm he was their guy. But Tomlin was much more in line with the Steelers’ previous two hires Noll and Cowher. He was a young defensive coach–exactly what we needed. I wouldn’t trade him for anyone.