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The Baltimore Ravens have announced a major change in their front office with general manager Ozzie Newsome set to step aside after the 2018 season, with longtime deputy Eric DeCosta set to take over. The Ravens won’t conduct any other interviews, which seems like a violation of the Rooney Rule.
But as Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk reports, the NFL has clarified that the Rooney Rule gives the Ravens the ability to promote DeCosta without having to interview a minority candidate.
According to the NFL, part of the Rooney Rule stipulates that teams can make a promotion of a personnel executive to the top job without conducting any interviews, if the executive has already been labeled as the G.M. in waiting.
The questionable implementation of the Rooney Rule has once again been an issue in the league this offseason. It was most notably under the spotlight in the Oakland Raiders’ head coaching hire, with minority candidates interviewed seemingly for show as Jon Gruden was widely expected to get the job.
However, the NFL ruled that the Raiders had successfully complied with the Rooney Rule after conducting an official investigation.
And now, the league has helped inform the public at large of this somewhat unknown provision of the rule which allows teams to name successors without having to conduct interviews with minorities. The Newsome-DeCosta case should help provide more understanding of a rule which must continue to be monitored in its enforcement around the league for the sake of the minorities it was meant to aid.
