Mike Tomlin ‘deeply important’ to NFL’s inclusive hiring this century

N. Jeremi Duru, a professor of sports law at American University in Washington, D.C., is regarded as one of the nation’s foremost sports law authorities. Also a sought-after commentator on inclusive hiring and diversity issues in the NFL – particularly in matters of coaching and front-office opportunities – Duru authored the definitive book on the creation of the Rooney Rule, Advancing The Ball: Race, Reformation, and the Quest for Equal Coaching Opportunity in the NFL.

In place since 2003 for head coaches and expanded and modified often through the years, the rule – named after the late Dan Rooney, formerly the chairman of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the onetime head of the league’s diversity committee and a United States Ambassador to Ireland – mandates that an NFL franchise must interview minority candidates and women for high-ranking positions in football and business operations.

After word emerged Tuesday that longtime Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin stepped down, Duru, during a lengthy phone interview with Andscape, reflected on Tomlin’s importance in the powerful league’s ongoing efforts to create a truly diverse workplace from the front office to the field.

You can’t have the discussion about inclusivity, equity and hiring in the National Football League over the course of the last two decades and not have a very large chapter about Mike Tomlin. He’s deeply important in so many ways, and I’ll start with the Rooney Rule. Ambassador Rooney said Tomlin’s interview wasn’t a Rooney Rule interview, and it wasn’t, as a technical matter. The Steelers had already interviewed Ron Rivera, who was with the Chicago Bears at the time [as their defensive coordinator].

But Ambassador Rooney was ahead of the game, ahead of the curve, as one might expect, on these issues. He did what best practices suggest should have been done then, and what the league later required, which is an interview of two people of color. So while it wasn’t mandated by the Rooney Rule at the time, he was ahead of his time in really seeking to cast a wide net. He did that by interviewing both Rivera and Tomlin. Rivera was the more well-known quantity.

Let’s remember that Tomlin had only been with the Minnesota Vikings for one year as their defensive coordinator. Before that, he was [a defensive backs coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers] on Tony Dungy’s staff. Tomlin was young. He didn’t have a lot of experience. On the Steelers’ staff at the time, Ambassador Rooney had Russ Grimm and Ken Whisenhunt – both of whom were viable head coaching candidates and both of whom were considered for that job. Without the Rooney Rule mindset of really seeking to find the best candidate, it would’ve been extremely easy for Ambassador Rooney to hire Grimm or Whisenhunt.

But he was true to the idea of casting a wide net. He began with like 32 candidates, narrowed them down to 12 and then narrowed them down further to the final four. Then in the end, he hired Tomlin. The way in which it’s reflective of the benefit of the rule is that when you have folks in house who would seem to fit the bill, you may not be inspired to look elsewhere. If you do look elsewhere, you might be inspired just to go to the usual suspects, the traditional characters. But Rooney, even though he had these folks on staff, wanted to cast a wider net.

Upon casting a wider net, he went even wider. Rivera was the one, at the time, who was the more known candidate. Instead, Ambassador Rooney picked an untested, relatively inexperienced, young coach and gave him an opportunity to interview. In the interview, Tomlin impressed. They called him back to interview, and he impressed again. He got the job. And two seasons later, he won them a Super Bowl. And we all know what he’s done since then.

What Tomlin did for the Steelers, right off the bat, led owners across the league to say, “Hey, wow, OK. Maybe we can win with a young, Black head coach. And maybe we can win with a young, Black head coach who didn’t play in the league. And maybe we can win with a young, Black head coach who has not had a whole lot of experience as a coordinator.” ‘For the first time, they started thinking that maybe we can win with someone like that.

His hiring, and the success of it, inspired other owners to perhaps move out of their comfort zones. It inspired them to consider candidates they might not have considered before. That led to people getting opportunities – people who previously may not have gotten them. Because all of this, he’s such a key figure in the discussion. If you want to look at inclusive hiring in the NFL in the early part of [this century] until now, Mike Tomlin is such a key figure. In whatever the discussion is, Mike Tomlin has to be part of it.

Duru serves on the board of directors for the Fritz Pollard Alliance, an independent group that advises the NFL on inclusive hiring. Among other appointments, he also serves on both the board of directors for the Sports Lawyers Association and scouts executives of color in the National Football League

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