The NFL chose Penn as the place to inject more diversity within its coaching and management ranks.
Hosting a career development symposium that featured NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Pittsburgh Steelers owner and Rooney Rule namesake Dan Rooney and 63 NFL job aspirants Tuesday at the Steinberg Conference Center, the NFL hoped to address an offseason during which not a single minority was hired among eight new head coaches and seven new general managers.
The Rooney Rule was instituted in 2003, requiring a minority candidate to be interviewed in a head coaching and general managing search. Under the rule, 12 minority head coaches have been hired after just six minorities became head coaches in the previous 80 years.
But the offseason’s lack of minority hires still disconcerts many of the NFL’s big names.
“It is alarming from my standpoint because I know the number of credible candidates who happen to be minorities on our industry,” Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said.
Tomlin also addressed the lack of coaches on the offensive side of the ball, as most minorities rise the coaching ranks with defensive experience.
“I knew there was a stronger possibility for me to ascend in our business on the defensive side of the ball, to be straight honest with you,” Tomlin said of his switch from wide receivers coach to defensive backs coach at Arkansas State in 1998.
“I don’t think it’s the race card … you hire people [whom] you’re comfortable with,” NFL Vice President of Engagement Troy Vincent said. “This kind of setting is for both minority and non-minority, we’re in the coaching development business.”
For Vincent, the symposium was focused on what he terms the “new modern athlete.”
“The 21st-century athlete … is a much different athlete personality-wise than any other time because of social media, because of the sense of entitlement,” Vincent said. “It’s a challenge of motivating an individual who thinks he’s arrived when he has not arrived.”
“I think we’ve realized we have to change all the time,”Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis said.
The symposium previously ran from 1998 to 2008, and after this year’s panel discussions and small networking groups, most participants would like to see the symposium become an annual opportunity.
“It’s a very good thing because young players come in, just got money, bought themselves a nice car, and there’s gonna be some good and bad come out of that,” Philadelphia Eagles’ safety Patrick Chung said.
“I’ve benefited greatly from [the symposiums],” Tomlin said. “I participated in the career symposium, shoot, 10, 11, 12 years ago. I used to go every year. I went to one in Chicago, one in Houston, one in Orlando. It was my first exposure to some of the things outside my area.”
“I think Patrick said it best, and it’s what we see from this modern-day athlete,”Vincent said. “You can say whatever you wanna say about me … just don’t embarrass me in front of my peer group.
“I think we’re in a different era now.”
