
Two years after that hire, the Steelers won the Super Bowl. Since the Rooney Rule, there have been two, the Indianapolis Colts’ Tony Dungy, the first African-American to do it - who also won against another black coach, Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears - and the Steelers’ Mike Tomlin.īesides instituting the Rule, Rooney was actively involved in hiring Mike Tomlin. Before 2006, no black coach had ever won the Super Bowl. After it, that number jumped to 22 percent. Before the NFL adopted it in 2006, only 6 percent of head coaches were black. The policy that requires teams looking for a new head coach to interview at least one that’s not white came from Steelers owner Dan Rooney. These five reasons alone should cancel any cry for racism against the Black-and-Gold administration: And if they believe that Vick should be punished for dogs he didn’t lay a hand on, as opposed to Roethlisberger who is not denying that he did lay a hand on the woman accusing him of sexual assault, then that’s problematic logic that says a dog’s life is more important than a woman’s.Īs for the Steelers, the franchise is a lot of things. The NFL should certainly be held accountable for how it handles Roethlisberger. Steelers players “probably won’t be pleased if it appears Holmes was singled out for his stupidity, while Roethlisberger receives a pass on his,” wrote the Times-Pic columnist John DeShazier. RELATED: The Pittsburgh Steelers Visit Obama At The White House

Likewise, a sports columnist for the New Orleans newspaper Times-Picayune has suggested that the Steelers owners may be pulling a racial play-action by trading wide receiver Santonio Holmes, who was accused of throwing a glass at a woman and cutting her eye, and who’s black, while keeping Roethlisberger on the team.
