The NFL informed Detroit Lions president Matt Millen, Friday, he has been fined $200,000 for failing to follow the NFL's minority hiring guidelines. In my eyes, there are two things wrong with this picture.
First of all, why was Millen fined, but not the Lions? I would assume someone in the Ford family signed off on the hiring of Mariucci when he was let go by the 49ers. As owners of the team, are they not responsible for the actions of their employees?
And then there's the fact that every qualified minority coaching candidate said, "Thanks, but no thanks" to the offer of interviewing for a job they knew they had no shot at. What purpose would it serve for Millen to interview a bunch of lesser-qualified candidates, other than to project a false image that the NFL is doing its best to give minorities an equal opportunity?
Which is worse... the team that makes it known they are going to concentrate their efforts on the one guy they feel is most qualified for the job, or the team that parades several minority candidates through the media only to hire a retread they had hidden in the back closet all along?
Maybe Millen and the Lions deserve a fine for not following procedures, but $200,000? That seems a bit excessive to me considering everyone in the world knew Millen fired Mornhinweg with the sole purpose of hiring Mariucci, and not many NFL bigwigs could honestly argue that "Mooch" was not the best man for the job.
Commissioner Paul Tagliabue wrote to Millen:
"As the President of the Lions, you participated in the decision by NFL clubs to commit to interview minority candidates when hiring head coaches; and you made that commitment for the Lions on the December 20 League conference call after full discussion of the Diversity Committee's recommendation. As club President, it was your responsibility to ensure that you and the Lions' organization met the commitment or demonstrated to this office that it was impossible to meet for some justifiable reason. While certain of the difficulties that you encountered in seeking to schedule interviews with minority candidates were beyond your control, you did not take sufficient steps to satisfy the commitment that you had made."
Commissioner Tagliabue informed NFL clubs at a league meeting in Philadelphia that any further attempts to bypass the league's policy on interviewing minorities for head coaching vacancies will be met with fines of $500,000 or higher.
First of all, why was Millen fined, but not the Lions? I would assume someone in the Ford family signed off on the hiring of Mariucci when he was let go by the 49ers. As owners of the team, are they not responsible for the actions of their employees?
And then there's the fact that every qualified minority coaching candidate said, "Thanks, but no thanks" to the offer of interviewing for a job they knew they had no shot at. What purpose would it serve for Millen to interview a bunch of lesser-qualified candidates, other than to project a false image that the NFL is doing its best to give minorities an equal opportunity?
Which is worse... the team that makes it known they are going to concentrate their efforts on the one guy they feel is most qualified for the job, or the team that parades several minority candidates through the media only to hire a retread they had hidden in the back closet all along?
Maybe Millen and the Lions deserve a fine for not following procedures, but $200,000? That seems a bit excessive to me considering everyone in the world knew Millen fired Mornhinweg with the sole purpose of hiring Mariucci, and not many NFL bigwigs could honestly argue that "Mooch" was not the best man for the job.
Commissioner Paul Tagliabue wrote to Millen:
"As the President of the Lions, you participated in the decision by NFL clubs to commit to interview minority candidates when hiring head coaches; and you made that commitment for the Lions on the December 20 League conference call after full discussion of the Diversity Committee's recommendation. As club President, it was your responsibility to ensure that you and the Lions' organization met the commitment or demonstrated to this office that it was impossible to meet for some justifiable reason. While certain of the difficulties that you encountered in seeking to schedule interviews with minority candidates were beyond your control, you did not take sufficient steps to satisfy the commitment that you had made."
Commissioner Tagliabue informed NFL clubs at a league meeting in Philadelphia that any further attempts to bypass the league's policy on interviewing minorities for head coaching vacancies will be met with fines of $500,000 or higher.
Comments