Rooney rules out

Historically, coaching in the NFL has been dominated by white males to a degree that the league had to implement what is known as the Rooney rule in 2003. According to Wikipedia.org, in 2003, the NFL fined the Detroit Lions $200,000 for failure to interview minority candidates for the team’s vacant head coaching job. After Marty Mornhinweg was fired, the Lions immediately hired former San Francisco 49ers head coach Steve Mariucci to replace him without interviewing any other candidates. The Lions claimed they attempted to interview other candidates but that the minority candidates withdrew from interviews, believing Mariucci’s hiring was inevitable. Named after the owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Dan Rooney (who is also the chairman of the league’s diversity committee), it required that whenever there was a coaching vacancy, the team would have to interview at least one minority coach for a head coaching job. In the Super Bowl game that would decide the champion for the 2006 season, two of the best coaches of their time squared off against each other, both of them black.Lovie Smith, regarded around the league as one the best defensive minds in the game, was to face off against his former boss and best friend, Tony Dungy. It was to be the first time in NFL history that two black men would coach the championship teams. Tony Dungy led his Indianapolis Colts to a 12-4 season and a third seed in the AFC conference playoffs. Lovie Smith led his Chicago Bears to the best record in the NFC with 13 wins and just three losses. Both coaches brought their respective teams through the playoffs and right into the Super Bowl.With the stage set and the opposing teams ready to play, the odds that a black coach would win the Lombardi trophy rose to an astounding 100 percent. As the teams were given the two weeks to prepare, the world prepared to watch history. Watching the game unfold, it was obvious that the actual game took a back seat to what was really taking place: modern history. Even the highly anticipated commercials participated in the moment by expressing themselves on history in the making. So by the end of the night on the first Sunday in Black History Month, Tony Dungy, a black man, held the Lombardi Trophy as his Colts won the Super Bowl with a final score 29-17.