After the Browns’ bang-bang firing of Sashi Brown and hiring of John Dorsey, John Wooten of the Fritz Pollard Alliance said that he is “livid” with the team for apparently failing to comply with the Rooney Rule. Browns owner Jimmy Haslam isn’t happy about that.
Haslam told reporters during the press conference that introduced Dorsey as the team’s G.M. that Haslam is “disappointed” with the comments Wooten made, and that the Browns “absolutely” complied with the NFL’s Rooney Rule.
Haslam said that he hopes to speak to Wooten about the situation soon.
However this one is resolved, the speed of the firing and hiring and the secrecy employed by the Browns invites fair questions about the process, not simply as to the Rooney Rule but also as to the broader question of whether the Browns can even begin to believe that they have cast a net wide enough to uncover the best possible candidates for the job if people who may have been extremely viable candidates didn’t even know that the job was being filled.