King Bootz wrote: ↑Fri Jan 14, 2022 12:53 am
Being black myself, I don't understand the "white perspective". Like do people really believe that NFL owners don't take race into consideration when making hirings/firings of HCs? Maybe not intentionally but I assume most people feel comfortable with people who look like them.
Perhaps you are more preoccupied with your skin color than others and thus project/assume others must be as well.
NFL Owners want to win and have a respected brand to attract/grow the fanbase and of course make money. But winning is paramount to achieving any of those other goals.
In a league with so much parity where every rule seems to be made with goal of creating more parity if you're making football decisions based on things like things like race you're just limiting the potential success of your franchise.
In addition we're in an era where franchises recieve a social currency for diversity and are championed in the media and public when they have success with minority leadership.
Just look at the Bucs. The Glazers were Trump supporters and have donated and hosted fundraisers for Trump. Idiots in the media have called them racist for that. Yet at the same time since that family took over the Bucs have arguably one of the best track records in the NFL when it comes to hiring black head coaches. And now continuing to promote diversity with women in both the coaching ranks and FO with Jackie Davidson working alongside Mike Greenberg as an assistant to the GM.
My point is I don't believe NFL Owners refuse to hire a person they feel would give them the best chance at success based on that candidates skin color. Yes, shitty white coaches still get hired. But that doesn't mean there was racism involved.
Unfortunately the cancerous idea that wherever there are racial disparities (in outcomes) the reason must be racism has grown more popular and crippled any critical thinking into what are always more nuanced/complex issues (like black HC in the NFL). The obvious flaws in that thinking is that it always only goes one direction.
The #1 reason we haven't seen the Rooney rule have the desired outcome is it never created a larger pool of better black candidates. It just artificially promoted their names in the interview process. Most NFL HCs get their job by establishing a track record of being coordinators on top ranked units, especially offense since that is the trend.
So the current incentives of draft picks for coordinators who get plucked for HC jobs should have a more positive effect. I'd argue it already is when you look at the pool of candidates this offseason already when the new rule is only 1 year old.
If you want to change a behavior of a person/organization you just need to change the incentive structure