watching NFL network and Steve Wyche and michael silver bringing up some important points about these coaching staffs and hiring:
the diversity in the league right now in positions of power is in one of the worst situations its been in a long time - assuming ron rivera gets hired by Washington there will be only 4 HCs who are POCs - but there's also so few POC playcallers at the moment and partly its because there seems to be some impression from potential minority candidates that their interviews are box-checks and that there is a logjam for POC moving up through the ranks...
and now apparently Robert Saleh in one his interviews the last year decided not to say what his ethnicity was on his interview form because he thought it would potentially negatively impact his chances at a job
its outrageous that minority coaches feel that way at this point - partly its because there's been too many sham interviews in recent times like the raiders interviewing people despite knowing they were hiring jon gruden
and part of the reason its happening they postulate is because of the lack of POC executives and GMs in the league which i think is an extremely fair point...
also why is jim caldwell not coaching in the league right now? how does he not have a job with all this chaos and lack of leadership around the league?
- The reason they are "box checks" is because that's how the NFL made the Rooney Rule. All you have to do is interview one POC and then hire the coach you actually want, as you said with the Raiders & Gruden. The NFL made it impossible for them to get serious interviews because they can just be used to satisfy a rule and be nothing more than a phony interview. It's a shame because they will be overlooked as serious hires but the rooney rule makes it that way.
- Yes the diversity in coaches and FO executives is in bad shape but should Marvin Lewis gotten another year just for the sake of diversity? Should the Browns had kept Hue Jackson on board despite being a terrible HC for the sake of diversity? Steve Wilks got a bad deal in Arizona after only being there for one year, Vance Joseph was the fall guy for Elway because he Elway isn't going to fire himself for not being able to draft QBs and expecting coaches to deal with his terrible decision making.
- On the matter of this subject, Pittsburgh and us would have had a different decade or so if they only interviewed Ron Rivera to satisfy the rule and not Mike Tomlin. Steelers interviewed Rivera to comply with the rule, most people thought Wisenhunt or Russ Grimm would replace Cowher. Whiz didn't wait and took the HC job in Arizona, Tomlin impressed enough in the interview to get the job over Grimm. Tomlin benefited from the rule but also did enough during the interview to get the job. If not for this rule, I think history looks much better on Joe Flacco and John Harbaugh as a QB-Head Coach duo without Tomlin being the HC of the Steelers.
- As for Caldwell, NFL Network's Aditi Kinkhabwala said he took a year off due to health issues but is ready to return for 2020. She also says Browns aren't interested in him for their Head Coaching job.
