Marvin Lewis rips ‘offensive’ Rooney Rule incentive plan

Marvin Lewis has been outspoken in the past about the NFL finding ways to create more opportunities for minority coaches, but he does not think incentivizing teams with improved draft position is the answer.

Earlier in the week, the NFL tabled an idea that called for teams to move up several spots in the draft if they hired and retained a minority head coach or general manager for a certain amount of time. Lewis spoke with Mike Preston of the Baltimore Sun about the proposal, and he thinks it is downright foolish.

“It was offensive, definitely offensive,” Lewis said. “It was like having Jim Crow laws.”

There are currently only four minority head coaches and two minority GMs in the league, and Lewis and others see that as a huge problem. However, using draft position to incentivize teams to hire a head coach or executive is an extreme idea. Instead, the NFL will now require teams to interview two minority candidates for head coaching jobs and one for coordinator jobs in order to satisfy the Rooney Rule. The previous rule only required teams to interview one minority head coaching candidate.

Lewis welcomes that rule change.

“We had come a long way as far as assistant coaches, but we never made any inroads in management,” the former Cincinnati Bengals coach said. “This will be a plus requiring more than one minority to be interviewed because it will cause them to take a deeper dive. This will allow more minorities more opportunities.”

There was a lot of outrage this offseason over the way some black head coaching candidates were overlooked, and Lewis urged the NFL to create more opportunities for those candidates. The new Rooney Rule requirements should do that without having to impact the draft.