Chilly

It did it's job, though. Got a bunch of idiots (incl me) on a political message board to click on the story.

1.) Bills are keeping Edwards. 2.) Fangio might be in the running for the Texas DC job (he's one of the linked names right now)

The way I read the study was that if you want to encourage minority hires, you don't focus on hiring practices (which is what expanding the Rooney Rule would do). Instead, you should encourage more minority football athletes graduating college to get started coaching right away, thus building up the overall minority coaching pool to pick from. Not directly, because it wasn't looking for a cause of the statistical increase. Rather, it tried to determine the factors behind why NFL teams choose to hire the candidates they do, whether that was race, qualifications, etc. Going from the findings in the article, it could have been that the quality and supply of minority candidates has grown over the past decade, leading to the increase in minority hiring. There's no doubt that the Rooney Rule may have had an indirect impact on that (more attention on minority hires = more engaged minority coaches = minority coaches believe in their higher aspirations and try even harder to get there; or, alternatively, the media gave more attention to and hyped up candidates they may not have in the past), but its hard to provide any evidence that there is a direct causation between the Rooney Rule and minority hires. As a result, I think it's served it's purpose - the culture in the NFL is a bit different, and the NFL should focus on expanding the pool of quality minority coaches rather than dictating head coaching practices.

He was already on staff, and the Bucs were high on him. He was promoted the second Kiffin left to DC, and the Bucs didn't even look at any external candidates when they fired Gruden. Rooney Rule wasn't even invoked, since the Bucs hired from within. Like Ramius said, Correlation != Causation. I posted it a few posts up. http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2010/january/011210blackNFLcoach.html

The funniest part about that argument is that same owner said the Rooney rule had nothing to do with the hire. Talk about hyperbole.

Honestly, I think quitting drinking is a horrible idea. Livers are evil, evil things that MUST be destroyed.

lol @ AP leaving out of the article that this guy has predicted the coming of Christ before - in 1994 - and was wrong. edited: AP article, not MSNBC

salmaiorana Sal Maiorana Gailey said he has no plans to make any coaching staff changes. Said he's satisfied with DC George Edwards. Of course, it's Ralph's call http://twitter.com/#!/salmaiorana/status/22041760431603712

Vikings press conference at @4:15 to make it official.

Tough road schedule next year.

Not sure that I buy that study. The evidence they present for their argument is problematic. The study says black head coaches did better in 1990-2002, and after the Rooney Rule in 2003, they did the same as their white counterparts, indicating black head coaches had to be better than white head coaches to get hired. However, the study says: All the anecdotal evidence I've seen says money spent != how well a team is. I'd really like to see some proof of a correlation before I believe that. The other way they tried to control for it: Most pre-season predictions are *wayyyyyyy* off of the final result. Comparing pre-season rankings to what happens during the season isn't a great way of measuring performance. Again, I'd like to see evidence of a correlation before I believed that either. Unfortunately, the University of Iowa study isn't available online for free, but here's a summary article; http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2010/january/011210blackNFLcoach.html

I think it's questionable as to whether the Rooney Rule made a significant difference or not. The major problem is that there hasn't been a quality pool of minority candidates to choose from until recently. Lots of people cite the majority of players in the NFL as minorities as a reason why head coaches should be too, but not many coaches had significant playing careers in the NFL. It seems that most coaches were college players, then went into coaching after college. There was also a study released early this year by the University of Iowa which found little evidence of discrimination in NFL head coaching hires. The more effective way to go would be to promote minority coaches working their way up through the ranks. They're getting a shot when they get to be head coach, but there isn't a huge pool to pick from. If the NFL can promote college players that didn't make the NFL starting careers as coaches, the pool will grow, and it'll fix the real problem: supply, not hiring practice.

The debate shouldn't be over whether or not the Rooney Rule made a difference, but whether it's still necessary. 6 head coaches were minorities this year, meaning teams are giving minorities a shot at running programs. It seems the culture of the NFL has changed a little bit since the rule was instated, which was the original intent of the rule, thus probably making the rule obsolete.

Absolutely hilarious.

IMO, good announcers are few and far between. The strong announcers point out things that aren't common sense, and have a strong understanding of the game. For my money, Bob Papa is the best announcer in the entire league. Chris Collinsworth is probably the 2nd best to me. A couple years ago, NFL Network had the best team in the entire league, with Papa and Collinsworth. Now, the NFL Network is a joke, with Matt Millen & Joe Theismann. Personally, I hate Siragusa. I think his reports take away from the game. His sideline work doesn't add much, and his color analysis takes are basic and simplistic. BTW, Siragusa was #5 on the Awful Announcing Awful Announcer of the Year! http://www.awfulannouncing.com/2010-articles/december/aa-awards-worst-announcer-of-the-year.html

I don't want a LB with a top 4 pick. I want a beast of a D Lineman. Give me one of those and I'll be happy.

More?

Keep it coming.

I love it. Thanks for proving my point!

lol @ mike leach's crusader calling me loud mouthed (and dude, I'm a Bills fan, I can handle bad seasons )

Nebraska lost to Washington 19-7 too.

Because its better than bitching about mock drafts, which is an even bigger waste of time than the mock drafts?

I know, I understood that, and I still disagree with you.

Glad you liked it!

Actually, I think it has more to do with you assuming that I was being "anxious" and "nasty" by saying I disagreed with your observation. You are reading into my post connotations that aren't there.