Bears say Rooney Rule is working, but NFL must make it better

Bears General Manager Ryan Poles listens to Bears head coach Ben Johnson speak to the press at Halas Hall, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. | Anthony Vazquez/Sun-TimesAnthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

SHARE

COPY LINK

The NFL’s Rooney Rule is a worthy idea clumsily executed.

Established in 2003 and tweaked in 2021, it requires teams to interview at least two minority candidates in person before they are permitted to hire a head coach.

Back when every coaching search was a mad sprint that began the second the regular season ended, that strategy made sense. But the NFL has, in recent years, turned coaching searches into drawn-out exercises in which teams must wait two full weeks before they’re allowed to talk…