Minority coaches slam the Rooney Rule

When the NFL implemented the Rooney Rule, it was supposed to help minority coaches get more interviews for head coaching positions; in reality, however, the rule hurt more than helped.

ESPN recently reported on the Rooney Rule, and some of their findings are shocking.

Back in early 2025, former Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham was on his way to dinner to meet with the Jacksonville Jaguars for their then-head coaching position. What he didn’t know was that they had already planned to hire Liam Coen as their new head coach.

The dinner marked Graham’s second awkward moment that day — two NFL sources told ESPN — as he had run into Coen while he was leaving the team facility, the first sign that Coen might have had the job in hand even as Graham interviewed for it.

He knew then he didn’t get the job. “That’s life,” he said — it was because of the way he didn’t get the job. “I was hurt through the process,” Graham said.

“It just made me think, like, ‘Damn, I haven’t done enough,'” Graham, now the Pittsburgh Steelers‘ defensive coordinator, told ESPN. “Football is pretty high on my priority list. And it felt like the thing that I hold in the highest regard let me down and crushed me.”

A lot of times, teams will interview a minority for a head coach position, but never get it. In most cases, it’s all for show.

Graham is not the only minority coach this has happened to, just the latest.

There have been plenty of minority assistant head coaches who have been passed over for head coaching positions. Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy has been interviewed several times over the years, but hasn’t received a head coaching offer.

What’s frustrating is that although teams are more or less forced to give interviews to these coaches, most of it is just for show.

“There’s no purpose of trying to rethink the rule until there’s individuals in positions [of hiring power] that actually want to [hire] the best possible candidate for the job,” Thomas Brown, the New England Patriots‘ tight ends coach and passing game coordinator, told ESPN. “… You would love to know when someone calls you about an interview that it’s actually genuine.

“But if their thought process is to just check a box so they can hire whoever they want to hire … that can’t be controlled or regulated.”

This article originally appeared on Touchdown Wire: Minority coaches slam the Rooney Rule