Rooney Rule needs to go away for good

The fact that the Rooney Rule is in place in the National Football League shouldn't be praised, it should actually be criticized. Look, I know that in recent years it has been easy for a lot of people criticize the NFL in their handling of a lot of things from off the field issues involving violence and on the field situations regarding rules and regulations.

But this situation with the Rooney Rule is not something that should be ignored when you look deeper into what it means.

Yesterday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced that the league will create more resources within the Rooney Rule for women who interested in an executive positions. That should already be happening without the current procedures in place.

The Rooney Rule was created in 2003 and was named after former Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney who was also the chairman of the NFL's  diversity committee at the time. The rule was created to protect minorities from basically being black balled (no pun intended) in the NFL. It gives minorities the opportunity to be interviewed for head coaching vacancies before a head coach is selected. While there have been minorities who have benefited from this rule, this situation has done a lot more harm than good.

Why should a rule like this be in place? The idea of hiring someone in any field is the belief that they are the best person for the job. Why should you be forced to look at a minority or a woman for job candidates? Shouldn't you be looking at all options genuinely in the first place?

That's what some people don't understand about this Rooney Rule. This rule is basically in place to make sure that owners (not all of them but a decent amount) around the league are doing their due diligence in looking outside of a certain race or gender. That is a problem.

So in other words, the rule is in place to make sure that owners around the league are not bigots.  Again I ask, if you want the best person for the job, shouldn't you be looking for the right candidate genuinely? Do you really need a rule to force you to look at women and minorities? No you shouldn't if you are a decent human being.

But the NFL seems to be proud that the Rooney Rule is in place. It doesn't do much for minorities and it won't do much for women in the long run either. This rule is a token rule.

The reason why the Rooney Rule is  a token rule is because there have been  a lot of minorities who have taken interviews in the past just because NFL teams are forced to comply by the rule. Why should you interview someone you have no intention of hiring in the first place? Oh, but the supporters of the rule believe it gives minorities a chance to be noticed. Well, that's the wrong way of going about it.

When minorities take interviews for a job they know they are not going to be hired for, it is a serious problem. And it is a problem that keeps happening mostly because NFL teams are noticing them taking interviews. Think about it.

For example, when NFL teams continue to notice the same minorities are getting interviews and are not getting hired for those positions, it is a problem for those candidates because there will be questions about why they are not being hired in the first place. And then from there, those minorities will be ignored. So how good does the Rooney Rule look after that? All of those token interviews amounted to nothing.

So now women who are looking for a good opportunity are most likely going to be added to this problem. NFL teams should genuinely want a woman to be in their organization because they are the best candidate for the job. Not because a Rooney Rule forced them to look in that direction.

There is a reason why when you file applications for a job, you usually notice them referencing that they are an equal opportunity employer and that they don't discriminate against race, religion, gender or sexual preferences. Those companies want you to know that they are not discriminating against you.

But apparently the NFL feels that teams need to be monitored based upon if they are discriminating against others or not. The rule is in place because apparently quite a few teams around the league historically can't help themselves from discriminating. Is that something that the league should be proud of? I don't think so.

The Rooney  Rule needs to go and if there are people around the league who don't want to look outside the box, they need to go as well.