The NFL's proposal to incentivize minority coaching and front office hires as a modification to the longstanding Rooney Rule has been shelved.

For those who don't know, the Rooney Rule was put in place in 2003 and required that teams interview a minority for open head coaching and senior football operations jobs. However, currently there are just four minority head coaches and two general managers in the NFL. That matches a 17-year low.

Due to that, the NFL felt it needed to take action. And the idea that they had was to incentivize teams that hire minorities in those positions, giving teams that hired a minority coach a third round pick in the following year's draft.

Now, according to Jim Trotter of NFL.com, that idea has been tabled for now:

The backtracking should not come as a surprise, as the proposal was getting ripped apart from the very beginning. Critics included Los Angeles Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn, one of the few minority coaches in the NFL at the moment.

There were a few problems with this idea. First of all, it seemed patronizing. It also would make it seem like no minority head coach actually deserved their jobs. The immediate perception from critics would be that teams were hiring the coach so they could get the extra draft pick.

And that's going to diminish the very real accomplishments of coaches around the league.

It looks like it is indeed back to the drawing board for the NFL. The league certainly needs to figure something out to get more minorities in higher positions. This proposal, however, was not the right solution to the problem. Now, the NFL will have to try again to figure out something that will actually work without hurting the credibility of any minority coach who does get hired.