The most damning testimonial about the distorted adherence to the NFL’s Rooney Rule went unnoticed for nearly 18 months.
Lost in the abyss of COVID-related football coverage — nestled in the middle of a “Steelers Realm” podcast in October of 2020 — former NFL head coach Mike Mularkey took a familiar allegation about the Rooney Rule and told a story about it from a completely unfamiliar vantage. He provided the viewpoint of the guy who actually got the top job in 2016, and the regret that ensued because he believed the process was a lie.