#race #affirmativeaction
A friend of mine shared an interesting link to a story published by Color Lines: News For Action about how Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is a successful product of Affirmitive Action.  Tomlin, obviously African American will take his team out on the field Sunday in pursuit of his second Super Bowl title in three years.  Not bad for a 38-year-old coach nobody wanted to hire.

If not for the now infamous “Rooney Rule” ironically coined by Steelers’ owner Dan Rooney, who is also the leader of the NFL’s Diversity Committee, Tomlin likely would still be an assistant somewhere or looking for a head coaching position in the college ranks.  Under the NFL provision an NFL team with a head coaching vacancy is required to interview a candidate of color.

The league first put the provision in place back in 2002 after Johnnie Cochran threatened to sue the NFL if it didn’t provide more opportunities for minority coaches in response to the vast racial disparities in the ranks.  While the spirit of the rule is to promote more opportunity for minority coaches, arguments from both sides in recent years combat that.

There is a common belief around the league that the provision is just a waste of time as often times NFL teams already know who they want to hire before even firing their incumbent coach.  Interviewing minority coaches to fulfill a quota is just a dog-and-pony act they argue.  Many black coaches subsequently refused to interview and help teams circumvent the system.  For years, former Oakland Raiders coach Art Shell was interviewed by teams knowing his qualifications were low enough as to not raise a red flag if he wasn’t hired but still fulfill the quota.

So when Tomlin emerged with the Steeler gig after longtime Steelers coach Bill Cowher resigned in 2007 many “experts” around the NFL wondered if one of the league’s most storied franchises made a mistake in the interest of the Rooney Rule.  What many teams soon realized is that Tomlin was no racial protest instead he could coach and open the eyes of many to the prospect that maybe minority coaches WERE being ignored simply because of their race.

But its now 2011 and the Superbowl is days away and Affirmative Action is probably the last thing on Tomlin, Ben Roethlisberger, The Packers or NFL Fans minds right now.  Yet such an exciting day for Steelers Fans might not once again be upon us.  Over the past few years we, check that, even I have argued that Affirmative Action in the age of Obama has run its course and is outdate.  Should we once again revisit the hiring practices of other leagues and organizations historically deficient in diversity?