ROBERT KRAFT IS PHONY ABOUT THE ROONEY RULE — AND BEARS SHOULD BE LIVID
Serious candidates should be interviewed for NFL coaching jobs, but the Patriots brought in two minorities to fill voids for Vrabel — which should anger Halas Hall as Freeman is carefully considered
If nothing else in a sphere of tomfoolery, the Bears are ethical as they pursue Marcus Freeman. They are intrigued by the first Black man to coach a team in college football’s national championship game. They have missed on Mike Vrabel. They likely will miss on Ben Johnson — chased by Tom Brady in Las Vegas — and might settle for another flimsy choice named Matt or John or Marc.
But at least Freeman is legitimate. That is more than the Patriots can say after they summoned Pep Hamilton and Byron Leftwich to “fulfill” the Rooney Rule, a supposedly consequential NFL directive intended to encourage diversity. Owner Robert Kraft is guilty of mocking the mandate and should be investigated by a commissioner long tired of Spygate and Deflategate, all because the Patriots wanted to hire Vrabel and needed two minorities to participate in interviews. Leftwich and Hamilton are Black men who haven’t coached in the league for two seasons.
They were not serious candidates or even close.
Kraft and his son, Jonathan, brought them to Foxborough anyway and announced Tuesday: “We have completed interviews with Byron Leftwich and Pep Hamilton for our head coach position.” That allowed New England to begin contract talks with Vrabel and announce his hiring Sunday. This occurred as the postseason continued, with Josh Allen setting up a must-watch showdown with Lamar Jackson while the Eagles ousted the Packers and eyeballed Detroit.
Instead, we ask if Kevin Warren and Ryan Poles should contact Roger Goodell. They are Black executives trying to run the Bears. They are watching white owners make fun of the Rooney Rule. Meanwhile, they are interviewing so many names in a “wide net” that we’re losing track of the process — yet, they are valid about it. Freeman is impressive as a leader of young men and could have a grand NFL future. He is 39, which isn’t too young if you’re Sean McVay or Mike Macdonald. His problem: Does he know how to maximize Caleb Williams? He might be a finalist. He won’t be the guy.
But he is far more impressive than Kraft’s two candidates. Hamilton has been with seven NFL teams, including the Bears as a quarterbacks coach from 2007 to 2009, and was most prominent as an assistant head coach with a Cleveland team that went 1-15 in 2016. He was let go by the Houston Texans in 2022. Leftwich was offensive coordinator of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers when they won a Super Bowl, yet when Brady and coach Bruce Arians were credited with spearheading a championship offense, he fell off the search map the last two winters. He was fired by the Bucs after the 2022 season.
The Krafts used Leftwich and Hamilton to fill voids. Once Jarod Mayo was fired after one season as head coach — “one of the hardest decisions I have ever made,” said Bob — the popular Vrabel was lined up as his successor. He’ll be introduced this afternoon and said of the Patriots two years ago: “This is a special place with great leadership, great fans, great direction and great coaching. It's not like this everywhere.” That comment helped lead to his dismissal in Tennessee, where he went to an AFC championship game in 2019 and compiled a 54-45 record.
At this point, the Bears could end up with Todd Monken, who has turned Jackson and Derrick Henry into unstoppable forces. Or Kliff Kingsbury, who was at work Sunday night with Jayden Daniels. Might Mike Tomlin take a call if he’s sick of Pittsburgh? Until then, Williams might want to monitor his phone calls. Was he sacked too many times in 17 games? A group of kids apparently found his number and pranked him with fake news: One pretended to be Johnson and posted a message.
“Hey Caleb, this is Ben Johnson. Just wanted to reach out ahead of time before it gets released to the media, I will be taking the HC job,” it said. “Very excited to work with you in the future. Great things.”
Williams should have ignored it. Instead, allegedly, he wrote: “Okay cool. Sounds good. I’m def excited for the future! Let’s get this s–t going and turn it around n do what hasn’t been done in years! In the meantime!! F–king go kill! We’ll talk soon!”
He then called FaceTime.
A lie.
Which is sad, considering Johnson actually might say no. Yet nothing is a bigger fraud than what happened in New England.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.