04/20/24
February 05, 2003
Johhnie Cochran lashes out : at Lion's for Mooch hiring. From the article:
"The Lions' ownership breached an agreement made to the other 31 owners of the NFL," Mehri and Cochran said in a joint statement. "On Dec. 20, the 32 owners of the NFL 'strongly agreed' to interview at least one minority candidate prior to selecting a head coach." The Lions tried to interview several minority candidates but were turned down because the candidates did not want to have "token" interviews. Team president Matt Millen has insisted he had not decided on Mariucci before he fired Marty Mornhinweg, but that insistence has been met with skepticism.
My question...is the "requirement" that teams interview one non-white candidate for vacancies hurting more than it helps? In this situation, when a known commodity like Mooch was availale, it seems that it might. Me, I'll be skeptical when Rich Kotite gets hired over a qualified black coach.
rcade - my thoughts on who the requirements MIGHT be hurting: Black head coaching candidates without head coaching experience (which is all of them besides Shell, Dungy, Denny Green, Edwards) who are looking for a job at the same time a proven white coach is looking for a job.* Who would fault a team for hiring Parcells, Mooch, Gruden over an inexperienced black coach? So when a team brings in Mooch for an interview, and Mooch says he's interested, but the team has promised they will interview other candidates, what is the incentive for those candidates to show up for an interview? The job has practically already been handed over. They have much to lose by going to the interview because maybe a perception will develop that they weren't impressive enough in the interview. Maybe a stigma about the coach forms and follows him when he gets called into an interview he has a shot at because he's competing against Bruce Coslet for the job and not Mike Holmgren... * It's also a simple numbers game working against them. Every year a good coach or two is fired immediately following the season and is available to interview, and right now there are still a handful of black head coaching candidates, often working for teams in the playoffs, who cannot be interviewed because of conflicts of interest.
posted by vito90 at 10:21 AM on February 05, 2003
I’m not sure if the policy hurts, but I understand why Dennis Green wouldn’t want to interview with the Lions knowing Mooch was their one and only choice. I don’t think the policy hurts because the idea behind it (from what I understand) is to give minority candidates a chance to go through the process and hone their skills. And in that case even if it’s a token interview it still serves a purpose, though not for the likes of a Dennis Green. I don’t see anything wrong with the Lions hiring of Mariucci, after all they fired their coach to get Mariucci. In my mind this is identical to the situation in Dallas a month ago and I don’t remember anyone getting upset about that one. Did Jerry Jones pay better lip service to the policy? Is Cochran a Cowboys fan? Or is he just beating on the Lions because they suck so much? Agreed on Kotite and I’ll add the names Coslett, Carroll, and Glanville to that list. If one of these guys gets a job…
posted by 86 at 11:16 AM on February 05, 2003
At least Carroll had some success with the Pats. But answer me this, what about Steve Spurrier? There was nothing to indicate he was going to be a successful NFL coach. Why didn't Cochran, et.al. come down on the Redskins? I'll tell you why, the NFL is afraid of Dan "little Napoleon" Snyder. the idea behind it (from what I understand) is to give minority candidates a chance to go through the process and hone their skills. Good point, hadn't thought of that...
posted by vito90 at 11:25 AM on February 05, 2003
Everyone and their pet hamster new that Mornhinweg was dumped specifically to acquire Mooch, but the statement from Cochran and Mehri that: "He tarnished the hiring process almost immediately after the vacancy became available by publicly stating that Mariucci was the team's first choice," is not true. In fact he rather transparently declared that the Lions would be interviewing several candidates (we'll ignore, for the moment, that the other candidates seem to be other white, ex-head coaches like Ditka and Joe Gibbs ). So what were really doing is vilifying the Lions for not making an honest effort at interviewing other candidates - okay, black candidates. Timing is everything and Millen's stinks on rice. He made a huge tactical error in stating that Mornhinweg's job was secure. The only guys surprised by Mariucci's firing were Bill Walsh ~damn, where's that link? Absolutely priceless~ and Mooch himself (Sure guys, whatever you say). So Millen couldn't have waited, canned Marty, started the search, interviewed a few tokens (hate that reference, but let's be honest), then declared Mooch his guy? Who would have argued with that? A few of the higher profile guys (Dennis Green, Ted Cottrell) would still have balked, but you gonna tell me Greg Blache wouldn't have interviewed? Or Doug Williams? What a blown opportunity. Note to Millen: next time take a page out of the Al Davis playbook and bring in coordinators from all of your divisional rivals, learn a few things, then hire the guy you want. I don't know if the token interview process hones skills so much as it raises profiles. And for coordinators looking to move up the object has always got to be to rise above the general crowd noise. At the end of the day, this all could have been avoided - but then, that's why their the Lions. Maybe somebody should get one of those Cinci lawyers on the phone...
posted by kloeprich at 12:33 PM on February 05, 2003
Vito, the Spurrier question is fair, but I'll tell you why he avoided criticism. Marvin Lewis. Marvin Lewis was hired as the defensive coordinator and it was spelled out for all to see that he had head-coach like duties for the club when it came to defense. The situation was presented as a two-headed coaching staff and while Spurrier retained the ultimate title, Lewis was co-head coach and was paid head coach-like money. Whether that actually makes a difference or not is open for debate, but that is the way it was played out and that is why the Little Devil (Snyder) avoided his critics’ fury on the subject. Let me also say that the situations with Spurrier, Parcells and now, Mooch are all nearly identical. They all include a head coach fired because the owner or GM has specifically targeted a widely-coveted head coach prospect. Yes, all were white, but I don’t think it was race that was the motivating factor or a direct factor for their hiring in any way. The ultimate question here is whether interviewing minority candidates when such a situation occurs is a good idea. I think it’s fair to say that that should be left for individual minority candidates to decide. In the case of Dennis Green and the Lions, I think Denny did the right thing. He has nothing to gain from an interview with Millen, knowing Millen wants Mariucci. If it had been a different person, say a coach who hadn’t been through the process before, the reaction from that individual may have been different. He may have decided that he could use the situation as practice or to raise his profile, even if his hopes for the job were miniscule.
posted by 86 at 01:04 PM on February 05, 2003
1) Owners should make a few phone calls to fellow interviewers before latching onto stigmas/perceptions about candidates -- if they're doing things right. Unless your interview really did go awfully, there's no shame in losing out to Steve Mariucci or Bill Parcells for a job. 2) I don't quibble with those who see Mariucci as the best guy out there. But is Mariucci the only coaching alternative to Mornhinweg? Is Bill Parcells the only alternative to Dave Campo? Didn't both these guys need to be fired, even if Mariucci and Parcells are dead? 3) That could be the greater insult to a potential minority candidate, quite frankly. By deed, Millen said he'd rather go another year with a confirmed mistake like Marty than replace him with one of two proven winners -- Dennis Green or Art Shell -- or an assistant like Ted Cottrell or Marvin Lewis. 4) A few of people did go after Jerry Jones a little bit for his handling of the Cowboys situation. Secondly, I do think that a owner hiring a coach with two Super Bowl rings (and three SB appearances) is different from a owner hiring a merely good coach. 5) Cochran didn't come down hard on the Redskins for Spurrier, because he and Mehri didn't make a big stink about hiring until Sept. 2002. Ballcoach had been on the job eight months by that point. 6) In response to the notion that race was not a motivating or direct factor in the most recent coach searches in Washington, Detroit and Dallas: No one accuses Snyder/Millen/Jones of being David Duke. At the same time, how does one become a "widely-coveted" candidate if you can't even get take the first step to get there? 7) How does Mariucci become a more coveted candidate with a .583 winning percentage than Green with a .639 winning percentage? (We won't mention -- at least not for long -- Spurrier's .000 winning percentage before his rousing debut.) Race may not play a motivating factor in that perception, but it is probably an important factor nonetheless.
posted by jackhererra at 09:46 PM on February 05, 2003
I'll admit, my first inclination was to tell Johnny to blow it out his ass. It still is. It's not his (or anyone else's) place to tell Matt Millen how his hiring process should be run (i.e. if he wants to name Mooch as the first choice). It would have been better to lie to these guys and say, "Hey, you've really got a shot at this job?" I don't think sending minority candidates on what are essentially snipe hunts increases the chances of them being hired. It's true that Matt's a moron for saying that right up front, but it discourages ALL candidates. I think having more owners who are willing to take a chance on a new guy rather than recycling a doorknob is the answer.
posted by wfrazerjr at 03:51 PM on February 06, 2003
We could probably argue all day over whether these "token" interviews help or hurt. But just like Matt Millen has his right to rig his coaching staff, I don't think there's a problem with Johnnie Cochran (or anyone else) telling him that way of doing things stinks. Another important point is that old guys and fat guys also get screwed over in what is in essence an image game. Didn't the Philly and Tampa Bay defensive coordinators -- both over 60 -- get ignored for most openings? And I thought it funny that, among college coaches, Kirk Ferentz's name would pop up before Ralph Friedgen's for NFL jobs, seeing the latter had already been an offensive coordinator for a Super Bowl team. Andy Reid could use a few laps, Parcells is getting up there in years, and Dungy snagged a job after a few years. But in general, the image they want to project comes from a relatively-trim, white guy who is younger than 50. Which is why we end up with the "Ken" doll in Jacksonville. That said, the colleges are about 400 times worse.
posted by jackhererra at 05:09 PM on February 06, 2003
Johnnie Cochran is a self-serving, publicity-seeking jackass who made his fame by getting a murderer off the hook. The next time he steps up to the plate for someone who CAN'T get his mug on TV will be the first. How about HE buys an interest in a team and run it the way he desires? Until then, he can shut his piehole. I agree about the coaching dolls, ... man, using that criteria, though .. how can Denny Green NOT have a job?!? The man has MADE himself into the image.
posted by wfrazerjr at 11:25 AM on February 07, 2003
Everyone has their notion of what is self-serving or who is a jackass. But I'd say that it's more a case of Cochran getting more calls from would-be clients in high-profile cases than a case of him seeking publicity, the same as it is for any major lawyer we hear about all the time. He probably gets more calls since O.J.'s criminal case, but it wasn't like he needed TV ads for his practice before that point. As for the other point, since when has Denny Green borrowed Michael Jackson's plastic surgeon?
posted by jackhererra at 11:46 AM on February 07, 2003
Who is the requirement hurting? At the worst, a few more minority candidates are considered for head coaching jobs. Millen's word isn't worth much these days after this debacle and Mornhinweg being fired following assurances he would be kept on.