The Rooney Rule didn’t save the NFL

Make Me Smart

Marketplace

News, Business

4.6 • 5.4K Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2022

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Super Bowl weekend is almost here, and while the National Football League would probably like us to talk about the big game, we’re discussing its hiring practices.

Last week, the recently fired head coach of the Miami Dolphins, Brian Flores, filed a lawsuit against the NFL alleging, among other things, that it discriminates against Black coaches. Currently, there’s one Black head coach in the league.

The Rooney Rule was supposed to increase diversity within coaching staffs by requiring teams to interview at least one minority job candidate. But not much has changed in the two decades since that rule has been in place.

“People in other industries brought the Rooney Rule to their industries because they saw it in the NFL. And so if you have the place where the rule was essentially born falling down in the job with respect to implementing the rule, then there’s going to be less confidence in the rule elsewhere,” said N. Jeremi Duru, professor of sports law at American University and author of the book “Advancing the Ball: Race, Reformation, and the Quest for Equal Coaching Opportunity in the NFL.”

In the News Fix, we’ll stick with today’s sporty theme and talk about Olympic gold medalist skier Eileen Gu and how she’s managed to walk a political tightrope amid tensions between the U.S. and China. Also, we’re keeping an eye on the U.S.-Canadian border.

Later, a shoutout to Kimberly’s hometown and a special announcement about our Economics on Tap YouTube livestream.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

“Former Dolphins coach Brian Flores sues NFL and its teams, alleging racial discrimination” from The Washington Post
“Roger Goodell: Results of NFL’s coaching diversity efforts ‘unacceptable’” from ESPN
“The NFL’s Black Coaches Should Stop Playing Along” from The Atlantic
“Trucker Protest Jams Key Detroit Bridge as Canada Tensions Rise” from Bloomberg
Eileen Gu is skiing for China and taking over the Beijing Games from The Washington Post
Watch: “Eileen Gu’s HUGE final run grabs big air gold”

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Alright, let's go.
0:02.0	Excellent. Let's go.
0:04.0	Hello, I'm Kimberly Adams. Welcome to Make Me Smart, where none of us is as smart as all of us.
0:16.5	I'm Carl Rizdal. It is Tuesday. We are going to do a single topic today.
0:21.0	The National Football League is on the agenda.
0:24.5	Not as the NFL would probably hope about the Super Bowl this coming weekend.
0:28.0	I'm going to go Rams, by the way. Although, you know, I kind of like Joe Burrow. I kind of like him a lot.
0:33.0	I don't know. Anyway, you know how I feel about the Rams.
0:35.0	I know you do. I know you do. That's a whole St. Louis thing where we're going to get to that.
0:39.0	The other reason the NFL is in the news and has been for most of last week and it continues into this week,
0:45.0	is the lawsuit filed by the recently fired head coach of the Miami Dolphins Bryan Florence,
0:50.0	who was alleged amongst some other things that the league fundamentally racially discriminates against black coaches.
0:57.0	So we're going to talk about that. Right. This isn't just a labor story.
1:01.0	It's also about power and money with major financial implications for the NFL.
1:07.0	But of course, at the heart of it is this legacy of systemic racism.
1:12.0	And what happens when you unfortunately are the person who feels the responsibility to try to dismantle that.
1:19.0	And here to make us smart about the topic is Jeremy Duru, a professor of sports law at American University.
1:26.0	An author of the book, Advancing the Ball Race Reformation and the Quest for Equal Coaching Opportunity in the NFL.
1:35.0	Professor, welcome. Thank you very much. Pleasure to be with you all.
1:39.0	So explain for us if you don't mind the broad strokes about what this lawsuit is for and has alleged and what's happening inside the NFL.
1:50.0	Sure. So a Brian Flores is alleging racial discrimination with respect to coaching and executive opportunities in the National Football League.
2:02.0	It's a class action. So is bringing the action on behalf of a class of African Americans or candidates for coaching and executive positions generally.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Marketplace, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Marketplace and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.