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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NFL ISSUES GUIDELINES
FOR INTERVIEWING To assist clubs in implementing the NFL policy on equal employment and diversity, the NFL Committee on Workplace Diversity has issued a set of interviewing guidelines for any club hiring a head coach. The Committee last December recommended that “all NFL clubs hiring head coaches interview, as one element of the hiring process, one or more minority applicants for that position.” In subsequent conference calls last December with owners and senior club executives, and at the NFL Meeting last March, the committee reviewed that policy, and it received broad acceptance from the member clubs. The only exception to this requirement is where a team has a pre-existing contractual commitment with a member of its coaching staff to make him the head coach and this agreement was on file with the league at the time it was entered into. The committee’s interviewing guidelines are as follows: “First, prior to beginning the interview process, a club should prepare a job description that clearly and fully defines the role of its head coach and the qualities it is looking for in its head coach. Such basic questions as the extent of authority, reporting relationships to the owner and other club executives, responsibility for player personnel and salary cap management, and supervisory duties relating to other club staff need to and should be addressed before interviews begin. As the interviewing process proceeds, it may be appropriate to modify the job description. “Second, prior to beginning the interview process, clubs should prepare a ‘search timeline’ that sets forth key decisions and dates leading up to the hiring of a head coach. The key decisions include the assembling of the applicant pool, the review of resumes/references/videotape interviews, the ‘winnowing’ to a final slate of candidates to be interviewed, and the target date for completing the search. This timeline should be prepared with reference to key NFL (and college football) dates, such as the regular season and playoff schedule, and the application of the anti-tampering rules. “Third, as part of the search process, clubs should make certain that they identify a deep and diverse – by many different criteria -- pool of head coaching candidates. As part of this effort, clubs should be sure that they are knowledgeable about potential minority candidates for the head coaching vacancy both within and outside their own organization. The League Office can provide this information, and consideration should normally be given at the outset to using the League as a resource for helping to identify qualified minority and nonminority candidates. “Fourth, the Committee strongly believes that direct involvement in the interviewing and selection process by a club’s principal owner is very important. To supplement the efforts of senior club executives, we strongly urge owners to personally contact candidates and extend invitations to interview for a club’s head coaching position. (While many candidates will be represented by agents, extending an invitation – as opposed to negotiating substantive employment terms – need not be done through an agent.) Owner involvement will motivate candidates to accept invitations to interview, because where owners personally extend invitations, the likelihood that candidates will perceive themselves as having a serious opportunity for a job will be enhanced, and the prospect that candidates will decline an invitation to interview will correspondingly decline. “Fifth, requests for permission to interview must be made and documented in accordance with the Anti-Tampering Policy. “Sixth, invitations to interview – whether accepted or declined – should be documented directly by the club in a letter to the candidate. “Seventh, telephone interviews are never preferable and seldom adequate. Instead, interviews should be conducted in person, and it is the Committee’s expectation that those in-person interviews will include at least one minority applicant. “Eighth, it is not necessary that the same person interview each applicant. For many reasons, different persons may conduct interviews in at least some cases. Nonetheless, insofar as possible, the same person or persons should interview all of the finalists, and an interview with the club’s principal owner is preferred in all cases. “Ninth, candidates who are invited to interview for open positions should do so. Any widespread refusal to interview or an effort to discourage or put unreasonable conditions on interviews should promptly be brought to the attention of the Commissioner or his senior staff. Clubs should not accept a refusal to interview that is conveyed by an agent, but should obtain direct confirmation from the coach that he has decided to decline the invitation to interview. “Finally, for a range of reasons, we strongly question the value of head coaching changes during the season. However, if a coaching change is made during the season, the club may name an interim coach from its existing coaching staff for the remainder of the season without going through a formal interviewing process. However, the club must follow the mandatory interviewing process in choosing a new permanent head coach, unless the club had concluded a prior contractual agreement with a member of its coaching staff to become the club’s head coach and this contractual agreement had been filed with the League Office at the time it was signed. The Committee on Workplace Diversity is comprised of six representatives of NFL ownership -- Chairman Dan Rooney of Pittsburgh, Arthur Blank of Atlanta, Pat Bowlen of Denver, Stan Kroenke of St. Louis, Javier Loya of Houston, and Jeffrey Lurie of Philadelphia. NFL
clubs have access to an electronic database of profiles of every NFL coach
and access to a library of videotape interviews of high-potential NFL
assistant coaches. The NFL also issued to clubs the following timetable
setting out key dates to assist clubs in planning their hiring process: 2003 December 28 Regular Season Ends
Coaches whose season has
Playoff coaches with 1st 2004 January 3-4 Wild Card Games
Playoff coaches who won a January 10-11 Divisional Playoffs
No further interviews for playoff
coaches January 18 Conference Championships February 1 Super Bowl February 8 Pro Bowl February 18-24 Combine
March 1 Clubs may deny permission March 3 New League Year begins Free Agency period begins Commissioner Tagliabue has informed the clubs that “conduct inconsistent with procedural or substantive initiatives relating to equal employment opportunity may be treated as conduct detrimental” under the NFL Constitution and Bylaws and subject to discipline by the Commissioner. “Such conduct will subject the violating club and responsible executives to appropriate discipline,” he added. “Prior to any such finding being made or any discipline imposed, reasonable notice and an opportunity for the affected club or executive to have a hearing will be afforded.” # # # |