Minority coaches get chances in ’17

Rooney Rule helps NFL reach high with at least 8 jobs.

The NFL will have at least eight minority head coaches in 2017, tying the most for the beginning of one season.

W i t h t h e h i r i n g s o f Anthony Lynn by the Chargers and Vance Joseph by the Broncos, the eight minority coaches would equal the number in 2011.

Five of those men — Marvin Lewis, Mike Tomlin, Jim Caldwell, Hue Jackson and Ron Rivera — remain as head coaches, though Caldwell has switched from the Colts to the Lions, and Jackson went from the Raiders to the Browns. The Jets’ Todd Bowles is the other.

The 49ers are the only team without a head coach.

Robert Gulliver, the NFL’s chief human resources offifficer, cites the effffffffffffectiveness of the Rooney Rule, which mandates that teams interview minority candidates for coaching and general manager positions.

That rule also has been extrapolated to include other NFL jobs.

“The rule is fifirmly embedded,” Gulliver said Friday. It makes us better.” Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy agrees.

“To me, the Rooney Rule is doing what it is supposed to do,” Dungy said. “It’s not just to interview minority coaches, but to investigate every candidate and make a thorough list and highlight the person who fifits you.

“If you explore it and take your time, you usually come out with a good candidate.”

Pe r h a p s most n o t a b l e in the process this winter has been the rise to prominence of assistant coaches who might not have been among the prime candidates mentioned when the season ended.

Ly n n , J o s e p h a n d t h e Rams’ Sean McVay — the youngest head coach in modern NFL history at age 30 — fall into that category.

“When we c reated the Rooney Rule in 2002-03, what we were trying to do was give guys who otherwise got overlooked to get a fifighting chance,” explained Cyrus Mehri, who co-wrote the Rooney Rule and has been a strong advocate of minority hiring in pro football, working closely with the Fritz Pollard Alliance.

“This hiring cycle has been particularly special because of the guys who have worked hard to get themselves in position to compete, t wo guys got selected, and now we are at the highest number of clubs that have” a minority head coach.

“We are very happy about that.”