Good point by Drew Sharp of the Detroit News about the broken Rooney Rule:

The NFL owes the Lions an apology — as well as $200,000 with almost seven years’ worth of accrued interest.

The league reprimanded the Lions in July 2003 for “violating the spirit” of the NFL’s then-newborn Rooney Rule in their aggressive, accelerated pursuit of a suddenly available Steve Mariucci. The Lions couldn’t attract a minority candidate for a precursory interview, because everybody knew Mariucci was the guy they wanted.

So explain this to me: How is what Washington did and what Seattle is trying to do any better?

The Redskins’ hiring of Mike Shanahan three days after they kicked Jim Zorn to the curb and the Seahawks’ lightning courtship of Southern Cal coach Pete Carroll after they surprisingly jettisoned Jim Mora after one season earned the league’s blessings.

They also had the approval of those very advocates of football diversity who accused the Lions of turning the Rooney Rule into a mockery seven years ago.

The joke’s on them now.

If such blatant circumvention of explicit league policy warrants so little consternation, then that must mean the Rooney Rule has outlived its usefulness and should be revoked or at least dramatically scaled back.

How the Redskins and Seahawks went about their hires was not how the Rooney Rule was intended to work when it was first established. Faking through an interview with a minority candidate isn’t honoring the rule – it’s spitting in the face of it.

Owners like Daniel Snyder and Paul Allen can hire whomever they want – after all, it’s their money and their team. But Sharp’s right – why were the Lions punished for being honest about wanting to hire Mariucci without interviewing anyone else and the Redskins and Seahawks get a free pass for making a mockery of the rule by setting up a couple of bogus interviews? The rule needs a serious makeover.

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Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reports that Pete Carroll has reached an agreement to become the next head coach of the Seattle Seahawks.

Carroll was fully expected to be introduced by the Seahawks as early as Monday, assuming they comply with the Rooney Rule this weekend.

The hangup could be locating a candidate to interview that would put the Seahawks in compliance with the rule, which requires teams to interview a minority candidate for head-coaching hires.

But the bottom line is, Carroll’s agreement with Seattle is “100 percent done,” one NFL source close to the situation said.

In a text message to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen on Friday, Carroll said, “You know I haven’t responded to a NFL question in two years.”
But a league source told Mortensen that Carroll was trying to persuade USC offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates to join him in Seattle — as opposed to Bates pursuing the same position with the Chicago Bears.

First and foremost, I don’t think Dan Rooney had this situation in mind when he and the league established the “Rooney Rule.” It’s crap that a minority will be brought in to interview for a position that he has zero chance of getting and therefore, the Seahawks should be fined just like the Lions were in 2003 when they hired Steve Mariucci without complying with the rule.

As far as Carroll goes, we can speculate all we want about why he chose now to leave USC and pursue the NFL again. Maybe it was money, maybe it was the perfect situation, or maybe he’s running from something. Either way, he’s going to be on the Seahawks sidelines next year and if I were a fan, I’d have mixed feelings about the deal.

There’s no doubt that Carroll is an outstanding college coach, but he’s already failed twice at the pro level. That’s not to say that the third time won’t be a charm, but I would have my doubts if I were a player or a fan, because his methods haven’t worked before. Granted, he ran a pro style system while at USC so in terms of game planning, he should be fine. But his ra-ra approach didn’t work with the Jets or Patriots, so it stands to reason that it won’t work in Seattle.

There’s already a rumor making its way around the net that Carroll might target Matt Leinart to be his quarterback. But as of right now, that makes little to no sense. First of all, the Cardinals aren’t going to trade within the division and secondly, Kurt Warner is nearing the end of his career and Arizona probably still has some hope that Leinart can be “the guy.” The rumor makes little sense, but we’ll see how this whole thing transpires.

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