Rooney Rule leaves legacy beyond NFL
Steelers owner left his mark with policy of minority hiring
Of all the contributions Dan Rooney made to the NFL, the Rooney Rule was the most important and far reaching.
The policy on minority hiring that carries his name has been adopted not only by other sports but by businesses and organizations nationwide.
His death came days before baseball honors Jackie Robinson today, the 70th anniversary of the end to racial segregation in the game. And Rooney, a white man from Pittsburgh, left his mark as a groundbreaker as well.
The Pittsburgh Steelers owner, who died Thursday at 84, was approached by several groups concerned with the lack of opportunities for coaching and front-office jobs in the NFL. In 2002, the Fritz Pollard Alliance reached out to Rooney.
“We knew that Mr. Rooney would be a mighty ally, and he was,” Pollard Alliance chairman John Wooten and executive director Harry Carson said in an email. “As chairman of the league’s workplace diversity committee, he worked tirelessly to ensure that the league’s other owners acknowledged the diversity and inclusion challenges that the league faced, and that they committed to increasing and broadening opportunity.”
The Rooney Rule was adopted in 2003. It requires that all NFL clubs interview at least one person of color when seeking to fill a head coach opening. Since then, the Rooney Rule has been expanded to general manager jobs. A similar rule requires that a woman be interviewed for every business front-office position that opens in the league.
Indeed, since 2007, there have been 10 Super Bowl teams with either a minority head coach or general manager.
Roger Goodell often has pointed
to the Rooney Rule as one of the major achievements in his decade as commissioner. In February, during Super Bowl week, Goodell announced the NFL’s expansion of the initiative to include women for frontoffice positions, lauding the rule Rooney helped design and put in place.
LYNCH: Marshawn Lynch has agreed to terms on a contract with the Oakland Raiders, according to a report from the NFL Network Friday afternoon.
Now all that remains for Lynch to return to the NFL is a trade from the Seahawks — who still own his rights — to the Raiders.
That, though, is regarded as a formality.
Terms of the deal had not been revealed as of early Friday afternoon, though it was expected it would be heavy on incentives and with low risk for the Raiders, and with a far smaller salary cap hit than the $9 million called for in the terms of the deal he signed with Seattle in 2015.
Lynch was placed on the Seahawks’ reserve/retired list in the spring of 2016 after announcing his retirement from the NFL via a Tweet during Super Bowl Sunday. That allowed Seattle to retain the rights of Lynch, who had two years remaining on his contract at the time. Contracts pick up where they left off when a player comes out of retirement.
SUSPENSIONS: Cornerback Nick Marshall of the New York Jets and Washington Redskins linebacker Trent Murphy have been suspended by the NFL for the first four games of the 2017 regular season for violating the league’s policy on performance enhancers
HEAP TRAGEDY: Retired Pro Bowl tight end Todd Heap accidentally struck and killed his 3-year-old daughter Friday afternoon while moving his truck, according to police in Mesa, Ariz., ESPN.com reported.
The incident happened in the driveway of the family home in Mesa, and the girl was taken to a local hospital, where she died, police said. Heap exhibited no signs of impairment, according to officials.
Heap played 10 years with Baltimore and two with Arizona.