Dan Rooney died Thursday morning at 84, but as so often is the case with people of consequence, their death isn't the news; their lives are, how the world was just a little better place for their having walked upon it.
The Dan Rooney footprint that is perhaps most notable is the Rooney Rule, an attempt to legislate a little fairness into hiring practices in the NFL by requiring minority candidates to be given meaningful interviews for head-coaching and senior football management positions. How effective the rule has been isn't really the point, so much as a man just trying, making the effort to do what's right.