The “Rooney Rule” was instituted in the NFL to ensure that minorities were given adequate opportunities to join coaching staffs. However, this implementation has sometimes led organizations to conduct “sham” interviews, where teams engage minority candidates without genuine intent to hire them. A recent example is highlighted by Sports Illustrated, detailing how the Jacksonville Jaguars had one of the most blatant violations of the Rooney Rule in recent memory. They conducted an interview with new head coach Liam Coen in secrecy as he had already agreed in principle to return to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as their offensive coordinator.
Yet, there were more troubling elements at play. The Jaguars were also interviewing head coach candidates Robert Saleh and Patrick Graham, or so they believed. According to Sports Illustrated, “The secrecy over the visit did serve two theoretical purposes. One, obviously, it would preserve the Tampa offer for Coen, which, again, was contingent on the OC not visiting Jacksonville. Two, it allowed the Jaguars to satisfy the Rooney Rule.” The Jaguars needed two minority candidates for compliance as only one had been interviewed in person—Saleh’s first was in person. Consequently, Graham was scheduled for Thursday, but the Jaguars sought to keep their plans under wraps to prevent Graham from canceling.
It will be intriguing to see if the league offices take action against the Jaguars for this overt violation of the rules.
