The NFL Is About To Make Everyone Equal By Instituting A 'Rooney Rule' For Women

YardBarker-  In fact, reports from the Guardian indicate the league is looking in to extending is “Rooney Rule” to include gender as well as race in the future. The idea would be to require all NFL teams to interview at least one woman candidate for certain positions within the organization, although exact details aren’t worked out at this point.

This was an idea that commissioner Roger Goodell even brought up back in February.

Apparently, the idea for this extension came after some of the league’s top executives attended a women’s career development symposium.

“It only made sense to extend the rule to include gender diversity for league office executive positions,” said Robert Gulliver, the NFL’s chief human resources officer. “If you think outside the NFL, a lot of major organizations have announced in the last year similar efforts to extend something like the Rooney rule. Here’s an opportunity for clubs to adopt this as a best practice, and we are excited about the opportunity to have some more thoughtful dialogue with the clubs.”




The Rooney Rule? The goddamn Rooney Rule! How could that have slipped my mind? I was sitting here thinking that women were never going to get a fair shake in the NFL hiring process, and I totally forgot about the Rooney Rule. I mean, it's basically foolproof. Just ask every one of the five African  American Head Coaches in the NFL. They'll tell you. Their employment had nothing to do with their well known qualifications and every thing to do front office members being forced into giving them courtesy interviews. Why wouldn't the same work for women? Hell, why would we even stop at women? What about the gays? And you can't dismiss the rest of the L's, the B's, and the T's? What about midgets? I am sure they would love to climb atop someone's shoulders that direct players from the sidelines. The blind? The deaf? The physically impaired? I think every NFL franchise should have to conduct 15-20 interviews - to varying minorities they have no intention of hiring - before they start seeing to the 5 old heterosexual white dudes and the one token black guy they already had in their crosshairs in the first place. That will fix all the inequality that exists in the front office. After all, women - much like African Americans - don't need to be considered for jobs, they just need to think they are being considered for jobs.

Isn't that all this is about? Making the public believe that every person - independent of race, gender, or sexuality - stands the same chance of holding one of those precious NFL positions. I know it's not about actually fixing some perceived injustice. If it were I am pretty sure a predominantly black league would have more than a handful of black coaches. That would be what's "fair", right? It's not that I am against giving women a chance to work in the NFL if they have what it takes, but I just think wasting everyone's time with women that don't gave what it takes - just to say that you did - is a bit disingenuous. Especially since the NFL is too cutthroat of a business not to hire the best man - or woman - for the job, regardless of race , color, or creed.