NFL News

[Fraquar]

Tanking is done at the GM level. IR, IR IR. The year that netted them Okudah, Quinn was IR'ing almost anyone of true worth. The key was IRing MS.

No coach or player should ever try and lose. How do you, as a coach or player, pull yourself out of that? I can see losing because you don't have enough thorough breds. But, incentivizing loses to your coach? I would not had believed it if it was not being reported by an ex-coach.

Except Stafford needed to be IR'd - he broke bones in his back.
This wasn't a case of a GM putting his QB on IR because he had an infected hang nail - despite the doctors saying he'd need just a week or two.

A GM is responsible first and foremost for winning in the future - because all of his transaction are made based on that.
The Coach is responsible for winning with what the GM gave him in the present - because all his decisions are based only on that.
I'm just curious why Flores even came back for the 2020 season given his accusations. That seems like a gigantic conflict of integrity and character between employer and employee.

[JGSpartan]

It's certainly a conflict but it's also the pinnacle of his profession that he'll probably never reach again when he opens his mouth. There's probably a part of him that justified staying if he ignored it and just tried his best to win.

Also a GM's responsibility is not first and foremost winning in the future. It's to balance both the future and the now and to know when to prioritize one or the other.

[froot loops]

There is also a chance that Fraquar is a much more ethical man than Brian Flores.

[Nick Pappageorgio]

I think they need to make standardize the hiring process….and add a hiring committee. This committee should include at least 1 representative (usually in the form of a former player) of color.

The owner still gets to pick…but there’s got to be some checks and balances here.

I work for a regulated company (so I know if the process is more rigid)…..but HR sets the minimum requirements (not leadership or the hiring manager). Without meeting this minimum requirement the manager can’t even interview the person.

So a guy like McCown can’t get interviewed…because they’ve set a minimum level of coaching experience (as defined by HR and the rest of the committee). And (because of the committee) there will be people of color around to translate for the old white guy at the head of the table…who (because of his upbringing) may not have been exposed many people of color from a poor/blue collar background (which I see as passive bias rather than true racism).

It really blows my mind that this is a 10+ billion per year operation and the hiring process (for HCs at least) has all the process and standards of when I hired my last cleaning lady. I understand that owners wants (and should have) freedom in the hiring process….but how teams do it now is a relic of a bygone era, and there’s too much attention….standardize and make the process more transparent by adding the committee.

[JGSpartan]

I think part of the issue you're gonna run into is that for a good portion of these owners the team isn't their primary source of income. These people aren't interested in anyone telling them how to play with their expensive toys

[LightninBoy]

Left to their own devices I think the owners would go back to only white guys getting interviewed, but I think they would still do sham interviews to try and avoid the PR fiasco.

I think they would do what they've always done and *continue* to do under the Rooney rule: interview and hire who they already know, actual qualification be damned. The Rooney Rule simply canonizes the sham interviews, which is worse than doing nothing.

[LightninBoy]

I think they need to make standardize the hiring process….and add a hiring committee. This committee should include at least 1 representative (usually in the form of a former player) of color.

The owner still gets to pick…but there’s got to be some checks and balances here.

I work for a regulated company (so I know if the process is more rigid)…..but HR sets the minimum requirements (not leadership or the hiring manager). Without meeting this minimum requirement the manager can’t even interview the person.

So a guy like McCown can’t get interviewed…because they’ve set a minimum level of coaching experience (as defined by HR and the rest of the committee). And (because of the committee) there will be people of color around to translate for the old white guy at the head of the table…who (because of his upbringing) may not have been exposed many people of color from a poor/blue collar background (which I see as passive bias rather than true racism).

It really blows my mind that this is a 10+ billion per year operation and the hiring process (for HCs at least) has all the process and standards of when I hired my last cleaning lady. I understand that owners wants (and should have) freedom in the hiring process….but how teams do it now is a relic of a bygone era, and there’s too much attention….standardize and make the process more transparent by adding the committee.

Well said. Deserves more than a like.

[froot loops]

Nick's proposal is something better, but the chances of that system happening is only going to happen if they get whipped in court. That's how they have to deal with this. When these coaches get fired, they always talk up the ownership. Flores isn't the first guy to have these issues, but he is the first guy to speak up. The owners operate on a snitches get stitches code.

[TheLondonLion]

If McCown gets hired over Flores the optics are absolutely horrible, especially after firing Culley.

[froot loops]

[Tom]

Good for Austin. I thought he did a decent job here when he didn’t have a lot to work with.

[Fraquar]

I think they need to make standardize the hiring process….and add a hiring committee. This committee should include at least 1 representative (usually in the form of a former player) of color.

The owner still gets to pick…but there’s got to be some checks and balances here.

I work for a regulated company (so I know if the process is more rigid)…..but HR sets the minimum requirements (not leadership or the hiring manager). Without meeting this minimum requirement the manager can’t even interview the person.

So a guy like McCown can’t get interviewed…because they’ve set a minimum level of coaching experience (as defined by HR and the rest of the committee). And (because of the committee) there will be people of color around to translate for the old white guy at the head of the table…who (because of his upbringing) may not have been exposed many people of color from a poor/blue collar background (which I see as passive bias rather than true racism).

It really blows my mind that this is a 10+ billion per year operation and the hiring process (for HCs at least) has all the process and standards of when I hired my last cleaning lady. I understand that owners wants (and should have) freedom in the hiring process….but how teams do it now is a relic of a bygone era, and there’s too much attention….standardize and make the process more transparent by adding the committee.

Be careful what you wish for.
No system, no matter how it's designed is going to satisfy everyone.
At the end of the day teams need to be able to have the final say on who they hire - and not have candidates shoved down their throats by some arbitrary committee - shit that pretty much describes to a T how the Lions were saddled with Bob Quinn as a GM - which wasn't a good thing.

Look at John Madden's resume prior to Al Davis naming him the next Raiders HC and honestly tell me he'd meet the "minimum requirements" you suggest.

[Fraquar]

Would Mike Tomlin have ever met those minimum requirements prior to the Steelers interviewing him.
Shit, for that matter Brian Flores. His claim to fame prior to getting hired was a position coach.....
Be careful what you wish for.

[froot loops]

Mike Tomlin had been a coach for 12 years prior to getting hired, he spent the year before a defensive coordinator with the Vikings. Madden had been coach for 7 years before becoming HC, he was a head coach at a community college and a defense coordinator at SDSU before becoming a position coach with Raiders. Flores had been scout for four years with the Patriots, and then a position coach for 19 years with the Patriots.

Josh McCown was a QB coach for his son's high school team. One of them is not like the others.

[Mainevent]

Somebody pointed this out i think, but there need to be more minority coordinators, and in particular OCs. I think it was 3 black OCs this past season, Lynn, Leftwich and Bieniemy. When a league is largely focused on offense and the offensive coaches are 90% white, the odds are long. You could also throw QB coaches into the mix, as that's the pathway to OC/HC jobs.

But truly, this probably won't really change until the NFL has a more diverse ownership group. A lot of these owners probably look across the interview table and see something in a young coach - he reminds them of themselves at that age, or he's reminiscent of a previous coach they knew, worked with or grew up with. And when you're an old white dude, you probably don't see much of yourself in a black man in his 40s.