The National Football League made changes this week to the "Rooney Rule" which requires teams to interview minority candidates before making a hire in a coaching or general manager position, and one of the sons of the man the rule is named after is pleased with the tweaks.
Jim Rooney, son of the late Steelers owner Dan Rooney and brother of current team owner Art Rooney II, joined Pat and Aaron Thursday, and believes that the changes, including changing the number of minorities required to be interviewed for head coach and GM positions from one to two is good for the league.
"That really gets you to start looking beyond your bias," Rooney said. "When you just have one, you look at that person as different and everyone else as similar. So at least in the head coaching job, that was a good step forward."
Jim also talked about how businesses all ver the world use a version of the Rooney Rule to make sure minority candidates get an opportunity to interview for jobs, how his father was asked by President Obama to serve as Ambassador to Ireland here in Tampa, just after being awarded the Vince Lombardi Trophy for winning Super Bowl XLIII over the Arizona Cardinals, and more lessons he learned from his father, which you can find in his book A Different Way To Win: Dan Rooney's Story From The Super Bowl To The Rooney Rule, which is available on Amazon and wherever you get your books.
Listen to the entire conversation below!
Photo: Getty Images