The Official 2017 NFL Season Thread

MR.CJ wrote: »

Shizlansky wrote: »

Refs legit ? up

How?

Shizlansky wrote: »

MR.CJ wrote: »

Shizlansky wrote: »

Refs legit ? up

How?

Did you not watch the game?

John Wooten, head of Fritz Pollard Alliance, 'livid' over Browns' approach to Rooney Rule
Jarrett Bell

The quick hiring of John Dorsey as general manager of the Cleveland Browns has drawn a swift rebuke in the context of the Rooney Rule.

With a deal for Dorsey finalized Thursday night — Sashi Brown was dumped as the team’s executive vice president for football operations earlier in the day — John Wooten, head of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, suspected the Browns might have violated the league’s rule that mandates at least one minority candidate be interviewed for GM and head coaching positions.

“I think John Dorsey is a very top quality GM,” Wooten told USA TODAY Sports in a text message. “I am livid that the Browns would totally ignore the work all of us to make the Rooney Rule meaningful.”

A Browns spokesman, however, told USA TODAY Sports that the team complied with the Rooney Rule before the job was offered to Dorsey, who was relieved as GM of the Kansas City Chiefs last summer. Cleveland wouldn’t reveal the identities of any minority candidates interviewed.

It’s conceivable that Browns owner Jimmy Haslam would have conducted the process without involving the Fritz Pollard Alliance. That would be unusual, given the group headed by Wooten promotes and monitors opportunities for minorities and pushed for the rule named for late Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney. The Rooney Rule was established for coaches in 2003 and later revised to include GMs.

The NFL could investigate the matter. If it is found that the Browns violated the spirit of the Rooney Rule by conducting a sham interview, the team could be fined or docked draft picks, which would be ironic given how hard Brown worked to accumulate them.

Head of Fritz Pollard Alliance “livid” over Browns G.M. hire

John Wooten, the executive director of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, rarely takes issue with arguably questionable efforts by NFL teams to comply with the letter and spirit of the Rooney Rule. With respect to Cleveland’s bang-bang hiring of G.M. John Dorsey, on the same day executive V.P. of football operations Sashi Brown was fired, Wooten isn’t happy.

“I think John Dorsey is a very top quality G.M.,” Wooten told Jarrett Bell of USA Today. “I am livid that the Browns would totally ignore the work all of us to make the Rooney Rule meaningful.”

The Browns contend that they complied with the Rooney Rule. Like the Chiefs earlier this year, however, the Browns have declined to disclose how and when they complied. Based on a separate statement that Wooten gave to ESPN, it appears that the Browns did not comply by interviewing one of the recommended minority candidates.

Some have suggested that the Browns complied via a vague interview of former 49ers coach Mike Singletary, which occurred in recent weeks. But how could Singletary be regarded as a viable candidate to be a General Manager? He got into coaching more than a decade after his playing career ended, and he has never worked as a scout. The notion that he’d instantly be qualified to be a G.M. is nearly as laughable as someone buying a team and making himself the G.M. (which has been done, amazingly).

It’s also unclear whether the Browns complied with the Rooney Rule by interviewing minority candidates before Brown was fired. Washington pulled that move when hiring Mike Shanahan to replace Jim Zorn, interviewing then-assistant Jerry Gray before actually firing Zorn. The league regarded that ruse as sufficient compliance with the Rooney Rule.

Yes, the Browns have a minority head coach and had, until today, a minority executive who ran the entire football operation. But there’s no exception to the Rooney Rule based on past hires; as to coaching, G.M., and other high-level jobs, at least one minority candidate must be interviewed.

Even if the Browns found a way to clumsily check the box, the spirit of the rule apparently was ignored. And it’s likely that the league, based on an established lack of diligence and transparency in matters of this nature, will not be inclined to find that a violation occurred.

The fact that the league will give the Browns a pass doesn’t mean Wooten, the media, or anyone else should. If a rule on the books isn’t going to be respected, the rule should be scrapped. And in the same year that the man for whom the rule was named died, it would be nice to see teams go out of their way to honor the rule — especially when the team in question is currently owned by someone who previously owned a significant chunk of the Steelers.

Browns interviewed Doug Whaley, at some point

Amid optics that are far from ideal even in light of the team’s 1-27 record over the last two years, the Browns insist that they complied with the Rooney Rule before hiring John Dorsey to take over the football operation, on the same day that the Browns fired executive V.P. of football operations Sashi Brown.

The NFL has announced (i.e., the NFL’s in-house media operation reports) that the Browns interviewed former Bills G.M. Doug Whaley, and that the Bills “touched base with a few other possible candidates.”

An in-person, face-to-face interview of Whaley would constitute compliance with the letter of the Rooney Rule. That said, Fritz Pollard Alliance executive director John Wooten has said that he’s “livid” with the Browns over the process, which apparently entailed multiple interviews of G.M. candidates before anyone even knew the job was available.

That’s one of the problems of pre-compliance with the Rooney Rule. Secretly conducting interviews for a job that isn’t even open yet does nothing to create the impression of an open and inclusive search, which is precisely what the rule named for the late Dan Rooney was intended to do.

The NFL has been, is, and always will be a public trust. Secrecy should always yield to transparency when it comes to the question of who will (and who won’t) occupy key football positions with one of the league’s 32 teams.

So even if the Browns technically dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s when it comes to being able to say they actually interviewed a minority candidate for a job that wasn’t even open before the guy who held the job was fired, it’s impossible to say that a search no one knew was actually happening was as open and inclusive as it could have and should have been.