Rooney Rule Review, Part I

In light of the recent hiring of Pete Carroll by the Seattle Seahawks, who have been accused of making a mockery of the Rooney Rule by speaking with Minnesota Vikings’ defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier for the opening, despite deciding on Carroll before even firing their existing former coach Jim Mora, Jr., I thought it would be beneficial to do some research on how teams have built the Rooney Rule into their search for head coaches.

The name “Leslie Frazier” has been mentioned by hundreds of football analysts, pundits and bloggers over the last three years because Frazier (pictured above) is an African-American defensive coordinator who apparently is helping teams comply with the Rooney Rule before they go off and hire the coach they wanted before their search even begins.  Starting in 2008, Frazier has interviewed for the head coaching position with the Miami Dolphins, Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions, New York Jets, St. Louis Rams and Seattle Seahawks.  There could be more, but that’s all I’ve been able to find so far today.

In 2008, Frazier competed for the Dolphins job against Rex Ryan, Mike Tice, Todd Haley and Tony Sparano, the latter of which won the job and was the clear favorite before interviews even began.

2009 was a big year for Frazier, interviewing for four different jobs.  He went up against Josh McDaniels, Steve Spagnuolo, Raheem Morris, Rick Dennison, Jason Garrett and Todd Bowles for the Broncos opening (McDaniels won that one).  Frazier competed with Todd Bowles separately for the Detroit Lions opening, along with Mike Mularkey, Jason Garrett (who removed himself from consideration), Rex Ryan and Jim Schwartz, who “won” the spot.  Frazier was part of a long list vying for the New York Jets’ opening, pitting himself against Rex Ryan, who eventually got the job, Russ Grimm, Brian Schottenheimer (who stayed in his role as offensive coordinator), Jeff Jagodzinski, Ron Meeks and Brian Billick.  The last job that Frazier tried to land in 2009 was in St. Louis, but lost the job to Steve Spagnuolo.  Other losers for that job included Jim Haslett, Jason Garrett and Rex Ryan.

And finally this year, where Frazier has interviewed for the Seattle opening and lost it to Pete Carroll.  There don’t seem to be any other names coming out, so it appears Frazier and Carroll were the only ones considered for the job and it’s clearly debatable that Frazier was really even considered.

The Rooney Rule is clearly helping minority coaches get more interviews, but I find it troubling that teams continue to bring in the same candidates to satisfy the Rooney Rule and not hire them.  Ron Rivera still does not have a head coaching job, and neither does Ron Meeks or Donnie Henderson, despite multiple interviews for each.

I will continue to summarize the interview processes that teams go through when hiring head coaches and I felt Leslie Frazier was the perfect subject for Part I of this study.