Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFL Players Association, the Rev. Jackson, and attorneys Mehri and Cochran criticized the Lions for not seriously interviewing at least one minority candidate. In my opinion, they should turn their efforts where it might do more good.

These hiring guidelines were flawed from the beginning, because they will make every hiring decision seem suspect if a white coach gets the job. If no minority is interviewed, a team will be criticized. If a minority is interviewed and not hired, there will be claims that he was used as a pawn.

This is an issue that is not going to go away, but on the other hand, it is going to happen at its own pace. Owners are not going to hire candidates because they are forced to interview them. They will simply jump through all the hoops the NFL puts in front of them, and in the end, they'll hire the person they wanted in the first place.

Getting more minorities into the coaching staffs of NFL teams is going to be an evolutionary process. It won’t happen over night, and it certainly won't be because of this poorly thought out plan. It took years for the NFL to recognize that black quarterbacks could be successful, but as they began to have success, it paved the way for others to be given a shot.

The success of coaches like Tony Dungy, Dennis Green, and Herman Edwards will have the same effect. And if Marvin Lewis has any success at all with an inept Cincinnati franchise, NFL owners will be given another reason to look beyond the color of a man's skin when looking for the right person to run the team they have sunk hundreds of millions of dollars into.

The bottom line is, NFL teams are private businesses, and they should be able to hire whomever they want, as long as they comply with all relevant laws that other businesses must follow. And only if they don't will Mr Cochran and his band of not-so-merry men have a leg to stand on.

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