The NFL’s Rooney Rule, originally instituted in 2002 to expand opportunities for minority coaches, has expanded and evolved over the last two decades.
Among the changes are the inclusion of top front office positions and a compensatory system that rewards teams who develop minority coaching or executive talent. Clubs who lose a minority coach or executive to another team will receive third-round compensatory picks in each of the next two drafts.
The Bears would seem to fall into that category after losing assistant general manager Ian Cunningham, who took the Falcons’ GM job. However, the NFL initially ruled that Chicago would not receive comp picks since president of football operations Matt Ryan, not Cunningham, is designated as the primary football executive in Atlanta.
The Bears are pushing back. Team president Kevin Warren said (via CHGO Bears) that Chicago has “been in communication” with the NFL regarding the matter. He used some very specific language when explaining the nature of those talks.
“I wouldn’t say ‘change their mind,’ ” Warren continued. “We’re just trying to follow up with them, just a normal protocol within the NFL to send in a response to say that we feel that we deserve the compensatory picks.”
Warren joined Bears owner George McCaskey and general manager Ryan Poles in a recent trip to New York to make their case directly to commissioner Roger Goodell, per Jason Lieser of the Chicago Sun Times. With only a few weeks before the draft, a decision will need to come quickly if the Bears are to receive a third-rounder this year.
“We did what the league wants every member club to do,” McCaskey said at league meetings this week. “We identified diverse talent, we recruited him, we created a position for him.”
The Falcons believe that the Bears should receive compensatory picks from Cunningham’s departure, as does Cunningham himself. McCaskey noted that the league may be hesitant to set a new precedent that could force them to award comp picks in similar situations in the future.
But refusing to give Chicago those picks would be setting a different and presumably more dangerous precedent. Though the Falcons are supportive of the Bears in this situation, other teams may not be as charitable. They could see a new loophole in which they name someone other than their general manager hire as the primary football executive so that the new GM’s original team does not receive comp picks. Depriving a competitor of extra draft capital would not be out of bounds for a league that is frequently referred to as a business when discussing issues of this nature.
The ‘job title’ thing seems to be variable. Shouldn’t the job description for that position on that club be the deciding factor? Regardless.. The league’s decision seems to go against the spirit of why the rule is there.
I’ve heard of no other situation where the picks weren’t awarded. If somebody knows of one feel free to let me know so I can laugh at that too. Seems to work for everyone except the Bears.
Yeah, especially considering Matt Ryan has no real front office experience and is likely going to rely on Cunningham a lot. It would be one thing if it was hiring a GM under a president of football ops like Howie Roseman. I think the Bears deserve to get the pick.
Goodell is going to have a lot of enemies if he causes Unclemike to have a stroke from high blood pressure. The Bears appear to have met the criteria for compensation so provide the draft picks or scrap the rule altogether.
Better yet scrap Goodell.
These comp picks based on race related hiring is one of the most ridiculous things this league has ever done.
Can you imagine if we started awarding teams for rostering white CBs? Requiring teams to audition and try out at least 1 white CB before signing a CB?
No because being “x” race isn’t indicative of success in production.
The demand for racism in this country far outpaces the supply.