NFL Fines Millen $200,000 Over Coach Search

KMAN · Jul 25, 2003

I understand that the GM's agreed to interview at least one minority candidate but when is race not going to be a factor in hiring someone and when can we just hire the best person for the job.

It's just like affirmative action, when will we get to the point when skin color is irrelevant?

KMAN

NFL Fines Millen $200,000 Over Coach Search

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Jul 25, 3:00 PM (ET)

By MIKE HOUSEHOLDER
DETROIT (AP) - Detroit Lions president Matt Millen was fined $200,000 by the NFL on Friday for not interviewing any minority candidates before hiring coach Steve Mariucci.

Commissioner Paul Tagliabue sent a letter to Millen informing him of the fine.

After coach Marty Mornhinweg was fired by the Lions in January, Mariucci was the only person interviewed for the job. The team said five minority candidates turned down interviews because it appeared inevitable Mariucci would be hired.

"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," Tagliabue wrote.

Tagliabue also has said that future failures to interview minority candidates for a head coaching opening could lead to fines of $500,000 or higher as "conduct detrimental" to the NFL.

Spokesman Bill Keenist said the Lions "respectfully disagree" with Friday's ruling but support initiatives to promote diversity on coaching staffs and in front offices.

The NFL has been trying for years to increase minority presence at its highest levels. The league intensified its attack on the problem after advocates announced last year they might sue if the NFL didn't hire more black coaches.

League owners agreed in principle in December that any team seeking to hire a head coach would interview at least one minority candidate. The exception would be when a team makes a commitment to promote one of its assistants.

At the time of Mariucci's hiring in February, Gene Upshaw, the executive director of the NFL Players Association, and Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney criticized the Lions for failing to follow that new policy.

"The Detroit Lions gave mere lip service to the agreed-upon minority hiring process, treating it almost as if a nuisance to their hiring of Steve Mariucci," Upshaw said at the time. "The minority candidates were never given a fair chance to interview. In this case, the Lions' position is indefensible."

TheGeneral+ · Jul 25, 2003

Thanks

Common sense should have prevailed as there was no one going to get hired other than Steve.

FairWarning · Jul 26, 2003

The funny thing is they were going to interview Dennis Green but he declined, knowing they were going for "Mooch".

When the commissioner has minority ownership, he can worry about minority hiring.

ChadC · Jul 26, 2003

He wanted to interview Ted Cotrell and Green but both declined because they knew Mariucci was getting the job. I am all for fairness, but this seems a little harsh to me.

exilarch · Jul 28, 2003

The black coaches themselves, I heard,do not want to be hired on the basis of race. They want to be hired because they were the best man for the job.

TheGeneral+ · Jul 30, 2003

It's time for this guy to do a little venting.

This political correctness thing, sometimes, can go a little too far.

Take the case of the Detroit Lions vs. the National Football League, for example. Reports came out Friday that the league was going to fine Lions president Matt Millen $200,000 for violating an owners agreement on minority diversity.

In other words, the guy who does the hiring and firing for the team is being slapped with a penalty for doing nothing more than going out and hiring a guy he wanted who just happened to be available.

In a nutshell, here's what happened following the end of the 2002 season.

First, that all-time loser, Marty Mornhinweg, was told after the end of the season that he would be rehired for the upcoming season despite often acting as though he didn't know what he was doing.

That all changed a couple of weeks later when the San Francisco 49ers fired Steve Mariucci, at which time Millen promptly fired Marty and set his sights on the experienced Mariucci. After a couple of weeks of frantic pursuit, Millen got his man and Mariucci signed on the dotted line, even though he said he was ready to take some time off to get away from the daily grind of pro football.

Mariucci signed with the Lions in early February, giving the Detroit team its best sideline coach in who knows how long.

The NFL wasn't buying the Lions' hiring practices, though. About a month after the Feb. 4 signing, NFL bosses, encouraged by big-mouthed lawyer Johnnie Cochran -- Remember him? The guy who got O.J. a not-guilty verdict -- contacted the Lions and said they were violating that so-called agreement saying that they "did not take sufficient steps to satisfy the commitment" they made to seeking minority candidates for the head coaching job.

Sheesh, give me a break.

The Lions obviously didn't want to keep Mornhinweg, but no other legitimate candidates were available. But when Mariucci became available, they went after him. So what's the crime in that? They had a coach who stunk, they had the chance to get one who didn't, so they went after him.

Yes sir, the Lions got their man, now they're being penalized for filling the vacancy with a guy they really wanted.

Yes, they could have gone through the motions of interviewing some "minority" candidates, paying lip service to the agreement the owners had, but then they would have added hypocrisy to their so-called violation. And they would have hired Mariucci anyway.

Hmmm, Mariucci. That sounds Italian. And aren't Italian-Americans a minority?From USA Today the other day came this story: "Seattle Storm (WNBA) standout Sue Bird canceled a wager with a sports radio talk-show host who proposed to spank her on his program if she lost the bet."

Seems Bird and radio host Mitch Levy made a bet that if Bird's assist-to-turnovers ratio was higher than 2-to-1 at the end of the season, Levy would buy season tickets to Storm games next year. If not, Bird would appear on Levy's show and allow him to "spank" her, having to cry "harder, daddy, harder" during the spanking.

Bird was on a pace to win the wager, with 137 assists compared to 63 turnovers through the team's first 20 games. But then state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, who teaches women's studies at the University of Washington, got involved.

Kohl-Welles told the Seattle Times that such a bet "helps feed into the images of violence against women and stereotyping. This could be very hurtful ... not just to the WNBA, but to other women and girls."

First of all, I'm wondering why the esteemed senator is using a hyphenated last name instead of keeping her maiden name as a professional working woman. And secondly, how many people actually show up to Seattle Storm games?

What's the big deal, anyway? A radio guy and a basketball gal made a friendly wager to help promote women's professional basketball, and now it's offensive to a professor at the University of Washington?

Tell you what: I'll make a bet with WHTC radio personality Jennifer Sewell that Hope College quarterback Phil Butler has a touchdowns-to-interceptions ratio of better than 2-to-1 this fall. If he doesn't, she can spank me on the air. I'll even cry, "harder, mommy, harder" if she wants me to.

Or, as Sen. Kohl-Welles claims, will that action be "hurtful" to men and boys in the listening audience?

Good grief.

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