A Loose End Gets Tied Up …

On January 11^th ESPN.com reported that the Pats and Bill Belichick had mutually agreed to part company.  On January 14^th, ESPN,com reported that the Pats had hired Jerod Mayo as their new head coach.  Virtually everything I have read or heard about that decision by Pats’ owner, Robert Kraft, has been positive, but there was a “loose end” to this story that seemed out of place:

• How did the Patriots find another minority coaching candidate to interview – – thereby conforming to the “Rooney Rule” in 3 days and why was there no reporting on such an interview?
• Does the fact that Jerod Mayo is a Black coach mean that a team deciding to hire a minority candidate need not interview a second minority candidate?

I am not trying to play “jailhouse lawyer” here; it just seemed odd that so many things fell into place so quickly particularly since former Pats’ assistant coach Brian Flores is suing the NFL and several specific teams in the NFL alleging racial discrimination and retaliation against him.  He is also trying to turn his lawsuit into a class action suit on behalf of all minority coaching candidates in the league.

A subsequent report at Yahoo sports by Michael McCann offered clarification:

“… Mayo’s hiring as Belichick’s successor was reportedly part of his most recent employment contract with the Patriots. The inclusion of that clause, as described by media reports, followed other teams seeking to interview him as a head coach. The NFL was aware of this clause and comfortable with it. The Patriots are therefore in compliance with the [Rooney] rule, a workplace policy designed to diversify coaching and front offices.”

[Aside: Michael McCann is an attorney and the Director of the Sports and Entertainment Law Institute at the University of New Hampshire Law School.  He also writes for Yahoo, Sports Illustrated and Sportico; he is a great source of information and clarification.]

Frankly, I am very happy to learn that the implementation of the “Rooney Rule” in the case favored substance over form.  The “Rule” is only in place as a mechanism to give minority candidates access to the hiring process and indeed it can be easily circumvented by what Brian Flores calls “sham and performative interviews” by team owners who never had any intention of hiring the minority candidate called in for an interview.  By having it a matter of Mayo’s current contract of employment, this hiring was in effect a promotion that was decided upon before there was a head coaching vacancy.  And since Mayo’s hiring completes the intent of the “Rooney Rule” there is no reason for the Pats to look any further.  Outside the world of sports, this process is called “Succession Planning’, and it is done in myriad other places.

Jerod Mayo’s success or failure as the head coach of the Pats obviously depends on lots of things that will become apparent over the next couple of seasons, but I think first and foremost on that list of things is finding a QB for the team.  Mac Jones was less competent this year than he was as a rookie two seasons ago and Bailey Zappe certainly did not “burst onto the scene” in any positive way…

And speaking of NFL owners making coaching decisions, readers here must realize by now that I usually do not pin blame for unsuccessful seasons on head coaches alone.  In many cases, I suspect that a losing coach has been saddled with an inferior roster and that the coach may only be a minor part of the lack of success.  There is an ongoing situation, however, that gives me pause:

• I am confused and conflicted about the competency of Nick Sirianni as the head coach of the Eagles in Philly.

Here is the source of the confusion and conflict:

1. Twelve months ago, Sirianni and his Eagles’ team were solidly on their way to the Super Bowl appearance and an overall 16-4 record.
2. Today, that same team/franchise is in disarray – – to be polite – – and was just eviscerated in a wildcard playoff game by Baker Mayfield and the Bucs.

It is not that the Eagles lost the game last night; it is how they have played ever since Thanksgiving Weekend when they beat the Bills in OT.  Since then, the Eagles have lost 6 of 7 games and have lost 4 of those games badly.  I cannot pretend to know what is going on within the team; but to an outside observer, the Eagles did not play with anything like the energy or urgency they showed just a year ago.

Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet:

“Something is rotten in the State of Denmark …”

I suggest that something is rotten within the Philadelphia Eagles’ organization.  I don’t know what that “something” is, but I am convinced of the  existence of a “rotting substance” by the foul odor it has produced.

Finally, perhaps my reaction to the Eagles’ current situation is tied up in an observation by Henry David Thoreau:

“There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………