In spite of all of the league’s attempts at wokeness and DEI hiring on the operations side of things, there is no greater meritocracy in business or in sports than the National Football League (NFL), at least when it comes to players and coaches. If you win, you’re in; if you lose, you’re out.
Of course, some team owners have more patience than others. Right now, there are nine NFL teams looking for new head coaches. The Pittsburgh Steelers are one of them. This is unfamiliar territory for a franchise that last hired a new coach, Mike Tomlin, in 2007. Before that, the Steelers hired Bill Cowher in 1992 after legendary coach Chuck Noll retired. Noll joined the team in 1969.
Tomlin’s tenure was 19 years. Cowher’s was 15 years. Noll’s was 23.
Art Rooney III is the current President of the Steelers and is in charge of the search for someone he would no doubt like to see on the Steelers’ sideline for at least the next 15 years. Probably somebody young, and probably someone with a strong reputation amongst insiders in the coaching ranks, but not well known to fans and the public.
Rooney’s father, the late Dan Rooney, hired the last three coaches and, from an ownership standpoint, is the one who could take credit for all of the franchise’s notable success since 1969. He would be the main reason its current value is $6.5 billion.
But Dan Rooney left a legacy of a different sort that impacted every team in the NFL. He introduced what’s known as the “Rooney Rule,” which the league adopted in 2003 to increase the number of minority coaches across the league.
The current version of the rule, adopted in 2021, requires every NFL team to interview “at least two external minority candidates in person for open head coach and GM positions and at least two external minority candidates — in person or virtual — for a coordinator job. Additionally, at least one minority and/or female candidate must be interviewed for senior level positions (e.g., club president and senior executives).”
In 2022, the league expanded the rule to include women “as a part of the minority candidate definition and also include the QB coach position.”
What this means to all nine teams searching for head coaches right now is that each must interview at least “two external minority candidates.” This is under the auspices of the league’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee.
DEI factors aside, let’s do the math. If you have nine teams looking for head coaches, you will have demand for up to 18 minority coaches for this interview process. To be sure, a lot of these teams will be talking to the same minority candidates, so 18 may be a stretch. In addition, you will have a good share of non-minority candidates.
But given how hard it is to find one really good NFL head coach (remember that meritocracy thing), you’re bound to see some challenges here.
A small handful (maybe five?) of strong minority and non-minority candidates will rise to the top and be highly recruited by those nine teams. But there likely are not enough tier-one candidates to go around. That means a few teams will come up short this offseason and have to settle with the coach they get.
For most NFL teams, marketplace dynamics will be at work. The best coaches will go to the teams that offer the best money, the best situation, and the best chance to win. Then you have the Steelers.
Pittsburgh football fans take pride in a franchise that has won six Super Bowls over the years. The team has won enough so that no matter how old or young you are in Pittsburgh, you’ve had a taste of what it’s like to cheer for a championship team.
As a result, the fans want a contender every season. They go into every season with serious hope that the team could win a seventh Lombardi Trophy. In recent years, the performance of the team on the field has diminished that hope for many, but it’s still there.
Now, with the hiring of a new coach, Pittsburghers will accept nothing less than a coach who represents a solid chance at winning a Super Bowl, as early as next season.
Art Rooney has some things to consider. Is his father’s “Rooney Rule” legacy something that he must carry forward to the point where he must hire a minority candidate? Or will he use color-blind criteria that place the potential to win early above all else?
There’s a lot of pressure on him on this, because you have to know he’d love to find a coach that checks all the boxes, including winning. But this year’s competition for the most competitive head coach candidates could make Rooney and the Steelers the odd team out.
This is no small thing. Go into any bar of Steeler fans right now and just say the words, “Rooney Rule,” and you’re likely to be treated to a beer-fueled, 30-minute speech on why you can’t hire a head coach according to a DEI criteria and reasonably expect to win a Super Bowl. Many of these same fans will also say that overall, the Mike Tomlin era was good for the team. The point is that no true Steeler fan is going to balk at the idea of a minority head coach, but he has to be a winner. Because that’s all they care about.
