The NFL has adopted the Rooney Rule for front office personnel. Currently five minorities occupy top executive positions in the league. While I support hiring the best person for the job, just having playing experience does not mean someone can be the CEO of a billion dollar company. The athlete landscape is replete with former players who are broke becuase they were unable to run their own financial affairs, let alone be responsible to numerous stakeholders such as employees, sponsors, etc... Through training an executive can be born. Thus, any athlete who has played, taken courses, worked at the lowest level up to the top gets my nod and support. In contrast, I remeber a former player indicating that when he retired he wanted to be a General Manager of an NFL team. The athlete had not graduated from college, but felt that he should be given the shot at a GM position. My feeling is that anyone, regardless of their background, who has paid their dues should be given a chance. If you have a degree in sport management, have taken a large number of business classes, worked all the grunt jobs (i.e. pulling the tarp if you know what I mean), and paid your dues, you should be given preference over anyone else who is given the interview just becuase they fit a certain statistical category.
What are your thoughts?
Gil-
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