Expansion of 'Rooney Rule' Meets Resistance

The NFL remains unwilling to extend its minority-interviewing rule for head-coaching vacancies to also apply to key front-office jobs like team president and general manager.

In the wake of this year's disappointing results in the diversity among the head coaches hired, the leaders of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, the group formed to promote minority hiring at all levels of the NFL, expressed hopes that the league would extend its interviewing rule to cover top front-office positions. They thought that promoting greater diversity in teams' front offices was not only a positive goal, but also a mechanism to promote greater diversity among coaches. The thinking was that greater diversity among the key front-office decision-makers who play a role in hiring head coaches would help to level the playing field for coaching candidates.

But according to sources familiar with the deliberations, the NFL's leaders again have resisted suggestions to expand the rule, which requires each team with a head-coaching vacancy to interview at least one minority candidate. NFL officials have told the leaders of the Fritz Pollard Alliance that they will redouble their efforts to convince each team that's making a key front-office hire to voluntarily interview at least one minority candidate, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the discussions.

The league will consider extending the rule to front-office positions in the future if teams with front-office vacancies do not interview minority candidates, the sources said. The league and the Fritz Pollard Alliance plan to monitor the interviewing process conducted by any team that makes a front-office change following this month's NFL draft.

The leaders of the Fritz Pollard Alliance have pressed in recent years to have the rule -- known widely as the "Rooney Rule" for Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, the chairman of the NFL's workplace diversity committee -- extended to cover front-office jobs. But league officials repeatedly have resisted, saying they didn't feel the step was necessary.

This year, the leaders of the Fritz Pollard Alliance thought the league might be more receptive to the idea on the heels of a hiring cycle for coaches in which only two of the 10 head coaches hired league-wide are black. That will give the league an all-time-high seven black head coaches next season, but virtually everyone associated with the process had hoped for better results this offseason. NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue has said he was disappointed with the outcome of the hiring cycle.

For now, it appears that the leaders of the Fritz Pollard Alliance are willing to allow the league to continue to take a wait-and-see approach on the front-office issue without pressing the matter further.

The Rooney Rule was implemented by acclamation by the league's team owners in December 2002 under the threat of litigation. Tagliabue fined Detroit Lions President Matt Millen $200,000 in 2003 for failing to interview a minority candidate before hiring Steve Mariucci as his team's coach, and threatened fines of $500,000 or more for any future violations of the minority interviewing rule for coaches.

Revenue-Sharing Committee to Be Named

Owners expect Tagliabue to name a committee in the coming days that will work out the particulars of the league's new revenue-sharing plan.

When the owners voted, 30-2, last month to approve the labor and revenue-sharing proposals, they had the concepts of the revenue-sharing plan in place but had not worked out all the details. That will be the task of the committee of owners appointed by Tagliabue, and this committee's work will be studied by other owners every bit as closely as the work of the eight-member committee just appointed to oversee the commissioner search. The revenue-sharing committee will determine the criteria under which teams will qualify to receive money under the plan.

Leinart to Land With Condon?

Most people around the league expect former USC quarterback Matt Leinart to hire Tom Condon as his agent. Leinart fired Leigh Steinberg but is in the midst of the five-day waiting period mandated by the NFL Players Association before he can hire a new agent. Leinart already has his marketing interests represented by the Creative Artists Agency, and Condon recently moved from IMG to Creative Artists. . . .

The New England Patriots agreed to a contract extension with one of their key players, defensive end Richard Seymour. The deal is believed to be for four years, through the 2010 season, and worth about $30 million, including approximately $19 million in bonuses. Seymour had been eligible for unrestricted free agency following the 2006 season.

Seymour had renegotiated his contract last August, and he and the Patriots had to work around a league rule prohibiting a player from receiving two raises within a year. The club now has its most important offensive player (quarterback Tom Brady) and its most important defensive player (Seymour) signed through the 2010 season. . . .

The San Francisco 49ers and San Diego Chargers traded failed former first-round draft selections, with the 49ers sending wide receiver Rashaun Woods to San Diego for cornerback Sammy Davis.

Woods was the 31st overall choice in the 2004 draft, the seventh wideout selected in the first round that year, but had only seven catches in two seasons for the 49ers and spent all of last season on the inactive and injured reserve lists because of a minor thumb injury after nearly being released in training camp.

Davis was the 30th overall pick in 2003 but was in and out of the Chargers' starting lineup. . . .

Punter Jeff Feagles decided to return to the New York Giants for a 19th NFL season. Feagles had planned to retire but the Giants convinced him to come back for a fourth season with the club, in part because Coach Tom Coughlin agreed to allow Feagles to miss some team meetings and practices to spend time during the season with his family in Arizona. Feagles, 40, has played in a league-record 288 consecutive games. . . .

Carolina Panthers cornerback Ricky Manning, a restricted free agent, appears close to signing an offer sheet with the Chicago Bears. He visited the team Wednesday. The Panthers would have a week to decide whether to retain Manning by matching an offer from the Bears. They would receive a third-round draft pick from the Bears as compensation if they end up allowing Manning to depart for Chicago. . . .

Oakland signed defensive end Lance Johnstone, an unrestricted free agent from Minnesota. . . . The New York Jets signed free agent center Trey Teague, formerly of Buffalo.