Ryan Clark Calls The Rooney Rule A ‘Joke’

Ryan Clark Calls The Rooney Rule A ‘Joke’

The Patriots fired Jerod Mayo and the moment it happened, everybody knew it was only a matter of time before Mike Vrabel ended up getting the job. Pep Hamilton and Byron Leftwich were basically used as fugazi interviews to skate past the Rooney Rule. Ryan Clark went on quite the rant on a recent episode of Inside the NFL calling for changes to the Rooney Rule.

“I think this kind of puts a light on the Rooney Rule, which, to me, the New England Patriots made a mockery of,” said Clark. “To interview Pep Hamilton and Byron Leftwich, two coaches who aren’t even in football right now, just to fulfill a quota. The Rooney Rule was put in place, so some of these minority coaches could get opportunities to get in front of some of the executives and some of these owners, that truly were looking to give the job to the best person.

NFL teams are entitled to hire who they feel is best for the coaching job, & at head coach I believe that’s moved beyond color. Now, it’s time to create better resume & career building opportunities for minority to combat nepotism.

The entire football world knew Jerod Mayo was… pic.twitter.com/0byLf5KZuU

— Ryan Clark (@Realrclark25) January 16, 2025

“Now, I want to make it clear: I believe we have moved to a point where organizations will hire the best person they feel for the job. But let’s not make coaches, who have worked their entire lives for this opportunity, be the token interview. I think a better solution is for teams who want to skip the Rooney Rule, like the New England Patriots probably would have, because they wanted Mike Vrabel, allow them to hire someone on the lower level that reports directly to the head coach, reports to directly to the offensive coordinator, so they could get some of that tutelage that allows their resumes and their careers to build.”

“When it was implemented initially, I believe it worked,” Clark said. “It has now run its course and become something that is a joke to NFL and NFL coaches, and more importantly, to the people it was supposed to help.”

ESPN’s Ryan Clark Did a Wonderful Job Handling the Damar Hamlin Injury

I’ll add my own personal spin on things to close things out.

A: The Patriots made a smart move hiring Vrabel. Have you seen what’s happened to the Titans since he’s left? Mayo wasn’t ready to be a head coach and that’s obvious. It’s a shame the race card even has to be played here because everybody who had a head coaching opening should have sprinted to hire Vrabel.

B: Clark is right. It is a joke. However, I’m not sure that’s the rule that needs to be changed. I’d argue the rule that gave the 49ers an extra third round comp pick because the Titans hired Ran Carthon, only to fire him shortly after is more insane. I’d argue it’s far more of a joke to give teams draft picks to teams who lose minority staff members to rival teams. We want to get rid of the joke element in the hiring process, how about we start there…

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