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Art Rooney II Thinks ‘It’s Just Impossible’ to Enforce Rooney Rule for Interim HC

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Pittsburgh Steelers Owner Art Rooney II Acrisure Stadium Arthur Smith

There are a lot of coaches out there who are more qualified than Jeff Saturday, many of whom are minorities. Saturday just quickly got the Indianapolis Colts interim head coach job because he’s friends with the owner. So, why wasn’t the Rooney Rule abided by? It turns out that the Rooney Rule doesn’t cover an interim head coach position, according to Art Rooney. It only applies to head coach, general manager, coordinator, senior executive, and (recently added) quarterbacks coach.

Steelers president Art Rooney II, chair of the NFL’s workplace diversity committee, addressed the Saturday hiring at the owners meetings in Irving, Texas on Wednesday.

“We have talked about interim coach hirings in our committee, and we just decided that in terms of requiring Rooney Rule interviews and all of the hiring requirements we now have in place for the head coach that it’s just impossible to require that for an interim head coach,” Rooney said via Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk. “ … We don’t think there’s a lot we can about the interim coach situation. It’s just the timing that needs to apply to a situation like that just doesn’t allow for all of the policies to be enforced in that situation.”

Rooney added that the Colts must adhere to Rooney Rule requirements this offseason to hire a 2023 head coach. So, Saturday won’t just be handed the job without a thorough hiring process.

“Once the season’s over, the position has to be declared vacant, and they have to comply with all the rules,” Rooney said. “So as much as coach Saturday might be a candidate, they still have to go through all the procedures and requirements to fill the position that any other club would have. … The requirements still are there after the season, and we expect they’ll be complied with.”

The Rooney Rule was implemented in 2003 to help provide more opportunities for Black head coaches. At the time, there were only three Black head coaches in the NFL (Tony Dungy, Marvin Lewis and Herm Edwards). The Rooney Rule has expanded and made improvements over the years, but it’s been widely criticized for leading to sham interviews. There are currently five Black head coaches in the NFL (Mike Tomlin, Mike McDaniel, Lovie Smith, Todd Bowles and Steve Wilks, who is an interim head coach). Robert Saleh and Ron Rivera are also minority head coaches, as well. Saleh is Lebanese and the first Muslim head coach in NFL history. Rivera, who is Puerto Rican and Mexican, is one of three Latino head coaches in NFL history.