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This shouldn’t be the way one of the most elite jobs in American sports is filled, but Irsay did things his way — just like any other NFL owner. Although the league’s mandate that teams consider minority coaches has been in place for nearly two decades, it lacks the power to create real and meaningful change.
For league owners, the Rooney Rule is simply a check box. They use it to clear the low hurdle of interviewing at least two candidates of color – and then selecting their chosen person. Irsay telegraphed just that during a press conference Monday that temporarily vaulted the Colts to the top of the NFL’s Most Chaotic Franchise rankings.
“I couldn’t be more excited to be here tonight. Yes, this is a temporary coaching job. It’s in line with the Rooney Rule,” he said. “There will be a full review process at the end of the season [a] permanent head coach for whom we will have an interview process and go from there. You know, it’s for eight games and hopefully more.”
Prospective applicants for this gig, as well as their agents, should remember the last part: hopefully more. This offseason, when the Colts are following the Rooney Rule — it doesn’t apply to in-season hires like Saturday — Irsay should meet at least two minorities. He might even leave those interviews impressed. But when the owner himself is the interim coach’s biggest cheerleader and the one who hopes he will coach more than the eight games remaining this season, it creates more than just a sense of bias.
Irsay’s decision to hire Saturday appears to be more complicated than just a black-and-white issue. Irsay has previously hired two black coaches, and he kept throwing out the names of Tony Dungy and Jim Caldwell while defending his decision. To his credit, Irsay’s team has hired twice as many minority head coaches as the 13 NFL franchises that have yet to hire a black full-time head coach.
With Saturday, Irsay seems to have chosen a close confidant, someone he trusts. During the Colts’ most recent loss, a Sunday afternoon of misery that resulted in just 121 yards of offense and three total scores, Irsay reached out Saturday to ask what he thought of the lackluster offensive line.
No colored man has ever received such an opportunity as was gift-wrapped and given on Saturday. He becomes just the eighth NFL head coach since 1990 to land his first job with no experience in the league. All of these men were white.
And unlike the other current interim coach in the league, Saturday has the backing of his billionaire friend. Last month, when Steve Wilks, the black coach, took over the Carolina Panthers, he received lukewarm support from David Tepper, the team’s owner.
“He’s able to factor into that position,” Tepper said. “I spoke to Steve. No promises were made, but if he’s doing an amazing job, he should be considered.
Tepper and Irsay have the right to hire whoever they want to lead their teams. However, they jump at the chance to act as the public leaders they claim to be.
Just a few weeks ago, Irsay was the bold one, remember? Or at least the opportunist who recognized the easy target named Daniel Snyder. So last month at the NFL’s fall owners meeting, Irsay scoured the nearest cameras and tape recorders and built a bully pulpit so he could have a proper launch pad for Snyder.
We praised Irsay for stating the obvious – that there was merit in removing Snyder as owner of the Washington Commanders. Uh, yes. There have been “merits” for years. Still, at least Irsay stood up as the only team owner to say so publicly. But during that performative press conference, and later as he took more virtue-signalling victory laps, Irsay expressed how the Snyder drama has hurt the owners and their reputations. He said it was their responsibility — the owners’ — to decide Snyder’s fate.
“That’s not what we stand for in the National Football League. And I think the owners have been painted wrong many times by different people and in different situations. And that’s not what we’re about,” Irsay said when referring to the collegiality in the ownership community.
Also, as an owner, Irsay let it go: “I think it hurts again because it’s not personal. It’s something in the interest of the National Football League and what we’re about and how we’re presented as leaders in the world, quite frankly.”
After nearly two decades of Rooney’s rule, these “world leaders” continue to run their billion-dollar enterprises like corner stores. Maybe the mom and dad owner can get away with hiring his neighbor’s best friend as manager. However, an NFL franchise owner doesn’t have to make the same whimsical decision and therefore bypass rigorous vetting and interviews to find talent.
Yet these very wealthy and mostly white bosses appear to bear no personal responsibility for correcting their hiring practices and diversifying 32 of the most coveted jobs in professional sports. There are three full-time black coaches – the same number as in 2003, when the Rooney Rule was introduced – in a league where the majority of players are black.
“There’s no problem or perception except some of you create a problem or perception,” Irsay said when asked what his hire looks like to outsiders. “We follow the Rooney rule to a T. I’m really looking forward to the interview process at the end of the season.”
Irsay didn’t have to interview a minority candidate after firing Frank Reich this week. And he’s sure to comply and interview multiple candidates after the Colts tank a bold move toward a high draft pick. He will follow Rooney’s rule and that is the problem.
Simply checking a box does not make a leader. Neither is relying on Dunney and Caldwell’s distant past to justify their team’s hiring practices. Jim Irsay believes bringing in Jeff Saturday will solve his franchise’s woes. But he needs to understand that his personal decision will only make the league’s problems worse.
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