Any sort of controversy regarding the use and application of the Rooney Rule is going to get danders up in sports blogtopia, and the Big Lead's summary of rumors of questionable practices by Cowboys owner Jerry Jones lives up to the usual standard. Mike from ProFootballTalk was on the SportsBloggers livecast today, and noted that Niners' defensive coach Mike Singletary is now on the interview list, and the FanHouse has been on this too.
I believe Jerry Jones isn't a racist, and should be able to hire whomever the fuck he thinks is going to win him football games, but the whole "it shouldn't matter and he shouldn't have to abide by the rule" or the "it's reverse discrminiation" kind of misses the point.
1) He's not forced to hire the candidate.
2) I wouldn't have the right to vote 40 years ago. It's barely been 40 years since we were fully franchised. You can't erase the Old Boys Club mentality in 40 years.
Let Jones make the mistake of hiring Norv Turner, whom has been nothing more than a doobie getting passed around at a frat party by the NFL owners every offseason, but don't bring up the reverse racism or color blind stuff -- America isn't there yet, but hopefully will be.
Throw your two cents in and tell me if I'm off here.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
the muck of the Rooney Rule.
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4 comments:
The NFL is a monopoly and its 32 owners are one of the most pampered and catered-to billionaires in America. I think it's a pretty small thing to ask that they serve the public good in such a small way.
People who are apt to claim that racism is pretty much over now, and therefore perpetuating the mechanisms by which it was compensated for in the Worse Old Days amounts to discrimination against the previously privileged class (i.e. white males) tend to be the same people who think businesses are too noble now to hire children to mine coal, so we should do away with child labor laws. The fact that many of our nation's most successful companies see no problem hiring foreign children to e.g. sew sneakers for pennies -- and even claim competitive necessity for this practice -- is utterly lost on these people.
"The law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important," said Dr. King. Similarly, the law can't make a man hire a brother who's not qualified, but it can stop him from slamming the door before the brother gets a fair hearing. It's not a lot to ask, is it?
On this same topic, Ed Sherman of the Chicago Tribune points out today that when it comes to a lack of diversity, NFL head coaching has nothing on the sports media: "According to an Associated Press Sports Editors racial and gender report card released last June, African-American men and women make up 7 percent of all sportswriters." And as of this year, twice as many black head coaches will have played in the Super Bowl as have ever called the game. A pretty interesting stat, no?
Urg. I meant "some of the most" rather than "one of the most" in my first graf above, and "twice as many blacks will have coached in the Super Bowl as have ever called the game" in the last graf.
You can always predict the reactionary reactions of white sports fans when discussions of race come up. "Double standard!" "Reverse racism!" "Why can't everybody just be treated equal!" Too many people believe racism is in America's distant past and any policies to try advance people of color are misguided, unnecessary, and unfair. I wish that were the case--but it's not. I got those predictable reactions when I defended Michael Irvin's comments about Tony Romo, and I see those predictable reactions in discussions of the Rooney Rule.
Jerry Jones should definitely hire Norv Turner...
...as a quarterbacks coach/Tony Romo's personal mentor. Norv needs to learn to play to his strengths.
That last sentence had a lot of to's in it. Sorry.
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