The Rooney Rule was named after Dan Rooney http://www.steelersauthorizedshops.com/authentic-antonio-brown-jersey , the late and legendary owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers.The rule was enacted in 2003 and designed to bring awareness to qualified minority candidates for NFL head coaching vacancies by requiring that all teams interview at least one minority during its search.However, the rule does not state that a team must hire a minority to be its head coach. I feel it important to make that distinction in this article because ever since the Steelers, the team with the owner that helped pioneer head coaching opportunities for minority candidates, hired Mike Tomlin to be their head coach in January of 2007, it has been assumed that race was the only reason the former Vikings’ defensive coordinator got such a prestigious job. When the Steelers went searching for qualified candidates following Bill Cowher’s resignation, Ron Rivera, the Chargers’ linebackers coach, and Tomlin were two minority candidates that were brought to the Rooneys’ attention because of the aforementioned rule. However, after interviewing Rivera, that pretty much satisfied the obligation for the new rule. Yet, the Steelers went ahead and interviewed Tomlin, anyway, a man who, as Mr. Rooney put it in his book, Dan Rooney: My 75 Years With the Pittsburgh Steelers and the NFL Stephon Tuitt Jersey , “blew our doors off.”Here was a young man that came out of nowhere and was suddenly one of the top candidates to be the Steelers’ third head coach since 1969. You might say Tomlin benefited from the rule by having his talents brought to light, but that was the whole point. What the Rooney Rule did for minority coaching candidates was similar to what the late and legendary Bill Nunn did by scouting the mostly neglected small, black colleges in the late-60’s and early-70’s: it expanded the talent pool. Would Tomlin have been a serious candidate for the Steelers’ head coaching position without the Rooney Rule? It’s impossible to say, but the rule certainly put Tomlin on the Rooneys’ radar, and in that regard, it worked perfectly. In addition to Tomlin, Ken Whisenhunt, the Steelers’ offensive coordinator at the time, was also a candidate for Pittsburgh’s coaching vacancy, as was Russ Grimm, the team’s offensive line coach.After Whisenhunt decided to take the Cardinals’ offer to be their new head coach rather than wait for the Steelers to complete their search, it came down to Grimm and Tomlin.Grimm erroneously thought he would officially be offered the position, before the Steelers finally decided on Tomlin. Would Grimm have been a better choice? Given the fact that he’s bounced around the NFL as an offensive line coach since ‘07 and has never again been a serious head coaching candidate, the odds aren’t great. As for Whisenhunt, he coached six seasons in Arizona and faced the Steelers in Super Bowl XIII Authentic Cameron Heyward Jersey , where he came up just short of beating his former employer. In-between stints as the Chargers’ offensive coordinator (2013; 2016-present), Whisenhunt was the Titans’ head coach in 2014 and 2015.
You can say what you want about Tomlin’s current performance as the Steelers’ head coach (and it certainly does warrant great criticism). You can also come up with a few good reasons why Tomlin could and should be relieved of his duties. But based on Tomlin’s overall record, it’s safe to say Pittsburgh made the right choice 11 years ago. The late Mr. Rooney, the man largely responsible for the Steelers’ rise from football irrelevance to football royalty, knew what he was doing when he hired Chuck Noll in 1969. Mr. Rooney also got it right when he found Noll’s replacement in 1992. To continue to say Mike Tomlin only has a head coaching job because he’s black is not only an insult to him and minorities in general, it’s an insult to Dan Rooney, a man who spent his entire life making intelligent and sound decisions for the Pittsburgh Steelers.Maurice Jones-Drew suggests Todd Gurley’s new contract and teammates’ comments altered Le’Veon Bell’s return plans While there are many names within the national media who attempt to speak on behalf of Le’Veon Bell, few of them actually have any intimate knowledge of his situation with the Pittsburgh Steelers. However, one exception to that statement might be NFL Network analyst and former Jacksonville Jaguars’ running back Maurice Jones-Drew. Having had the same agent as Bell and also one of his friends with whom he speaks fairly regularly, Jones-Drew probably has had more contact with the Steelers’ absentee running back than anybody else in the organization in recent weeks. If we assume his insights have more value than most, then his appearance as a guest on the Rich Eisen Show revealed some telling information about Bell’s current thought processes. Perhaps his most interesting revelation was his take on why Bell didn’t show up for the start of the season. As Eisen observed in his opening question, his agent, Adisa Bakari, had always implied the plans for his client would closely follow the way he had approached the 2017 season when playing under the franchise tag, barring something exceptional happening. When it became obvious Bell wasn’t going to arrive in Pittsburgh for opening day Youth Ramon Foster Jersey , Bakari appeared on a radio show suggesting something out of the ordinary must have occurred to change his client’s mind, but no answer was ever given to questions about what that incident was.Jones-Drew did his best to explain what this exceptional circumstance had been when speaking with Eisen, and it turns out Bell’s continued absence is not inspired by only one event.With Johnson signing a three year deal that included a $30 million guarantee and Gurley a four year extension with potentially as much as $45 million guaranteed, Jones-Drew is clearly voicing Bell’s displeasure when he noted the level of guarantees the Steelers were offering.It’s worth noting that $19 million is a much lower figure than the $33 million in guarantees reported in July, when Pittsburgh made their last offer to Bell. But perhaps Jones-Drew is referring to the signing bonus amount the Steelers offered him and a number more in line with the figure expected. Citing James Conner’s 37 touches in Week 1 as proof his friend was right to sit out, Jones-Drew was quick to explain Bell’s continual appearances on TMZ’s website as a consequence of being a “music artist” doing “other things.” Claiming Bell was still training, despite how he looked when last filmed in Miami, laughably, Eisen concurred, adding that he “looks great.”Jones-Drew’s suggestion that he wouldn't show up until Week 11 if he was in Bell’s shoes gives a fairly strong indication that this is probably his friend’s intention too, but it seems clear that Pittsburgh should see their star runner return by then, if Jones-Drew really is repeating what Bell has already told him.While we’re wary of putting too much stock in the words of an analyst from the NFL Network, much of what Jones-Drew said appears to fit with decisions Bell has made to this point. And if the Steelers’ running back is listening to the advice coming for the former NFL back, it seems obvious his holdout will not be ending anytime soon either.