Jim Caldwell, The Rooney Rule & You

You hear a lot about The Rooney Rule when an NFL team hires a white coach almost immediately without giving ample opportunity for a minority candidate to be interviewed (coughcoughPeteCarrollcoughcough). Tim Smith from the New York Daily News wonders why that same scrutiny doesn’t work the other way, like say in the case of Colts’ coach Jim Caldwell, an African-American who was appointed head coach after Tony Dungy retired.

↵Buried somewhere deep in this story is a kernel of truth because, quite frankly, race shouldn’t even come into the equation. The criteria should be experience, smarts and football knowledge. You know, the kind of things you learn when you’re working under Tony Dungy for eight seasons like Caldwell did.

↵Even if you agree that Caldwell’s hiring was a travesty of justice and “stands for what is right and what is wrong with the Rooney Rule,” I’m pretty sure we can let this one slide. Dude’s coaching in the Super Bowl in his second season as head coach. Pretty sure he’s qualified.

↵Smith begins his article by stating he hopes, just like Martin Luther King, “that one day a man can be measured by the content of his character rather than the color of his skin.” Bashing Caldwell for getting the Colts job despite the fact that he was more than qualified just because of his skin color hardly seems in keeping with that.

↵H/T: Deadspin