The Rooney Rule was established in 2003 with an intent to give minority candidates more opportunities for head coaching and football operations jobs. But the league has come under fire after the current hiring cycle ended with only one minority candidate hired as a head coach.
Just this week, the Browns hired Andrew Berry, who is a minority, as General Manager, but the Texans gave head coach Bill O’Brien the title of General Manager and promoted Jack Easterby to executive V.P. of football operations.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell agreed during his annual state of the league news conference Wednesday that something needs to change.
“We believe diversity makes us better as a league,” Goodell said.
The league soon will start a series of meetings in an attempt to find a solution.
“Clearly we are not where we want to be on this level,” Goodell said. “We have to a lot of work that’s gone into not only the Rooney Rule but our policies overall. Clearly, we need to change and do something different. There’s no reason to expect we’re going to have a different outcome next year without some changes. We’ve already begun engaging on what change to take and trying to figure out what steps we can take next that will lead to better outcomes.”
Ron Rivera’s hiring by Washington marked the second consecutive season only one minority candidate earned a head coaching opportunity.