Ryan Clark, ESPN NFL analyst, Criticizes Patriots’ Coaching Search
Former Super Bowl champion and current ESPN NFL analyst, Ryan Clark, has spoken out against the way the New England Patriots handled their head-coaching search, violating the NFL’s Rooney Rule.
The Rooney Rule, implemented by the NFL’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee in 2003, requires each team with a head-coaching vacancy to interview at least two or more diverse candidates for the job. Clark believes the Patriots made a mockery of the rule by interviewing coaches Pep Hamilton and Byron Leftwich, who were not currently active in the profession.
Clark felt that the coaches were being tokenized, suggesting that they were only interviewed to fulfill a quota rather than giving them a fair chance to receive the job based on their merit. He suggests that the solution is for teams to hire from within, having coaches who have worked under a head coach learn from them.
Clark also argued that the rule has run its course and is now a “joke to NFL and NFL coaches, and more importantly, to the people it was supposed to help.”
The Patriots have hired Mike Vrabel, a former Titans coach, to lead their new coaching staff, despite Vrabel’s association with the organization and lack of direct experience interviewing for the head-coaching role.