I dont get it

December 17, 200421 yr

espn.com

In a season that has included abandonment by their best player, the firing of the head coach, questionable personnel moves, injuries sufficient to drive up health-care premiums nationwide, and enough on-field pratfalls to produce one of those Dick Clark-Ed McMahon blooper shows, nothing has come easy for the Miami Dolphins.

Contract negotiations ... are on hold. And the reason is that Miami needs time ... to interview at least one minority candidate. And, we hope, a viable one, although we are hard-pressed to divine how the Dolphins can complete that task.

Not even hiring a new coach.

Oh, the Dolphins have certainly identified their man, and there are indications that LSU coach Nick Saban is more interested in the Miami job than in some of the other positions in the NFL with which he has flirted in the past. But as noted here dozens of times in past offerings, timing is every bit as important in football (perhaps more so) than it is with life in general.

Since timing is a factor with which Dolphins officials must deal, the coronation of Saban, assuming he decides to take a job he has been eyeballing for more than a year, might take a little longer than anticipated. Indeed, even when the seemingly rudderless Dolphins do have a sense of direction, in keeping with the way things have gone in Miami this season, they happen upon a four-way intersection.

The reason: Miami must come into compliance with the so-called "Rooney Rule," which essentially stipulates that the hiring of a new coach must be a process of sorts, and one that includes minority candidates. Ignore the guideline and you're going to take a hit in the wallet -- as Detroit Lions team president Matt Millen found out last year, when he was personally fined $200,000 for hiring Steve Mariucci without an open process.

Miami officials, and specifically lame-duck club president Eddie Jones, have stated publicly that they will comply with the NFL's hiring policies. Jones is an honorable man. Ditto owner Wayne Huizenga, despite his having made his first fortune in waste disposal, a calling typically associated with graft and kickbacks. The Dolphins brass, with a few exceptions, is a collaborative class act. Mainstream players leaguewide, generally in lockstep with commissioner Paul Tagliabue and NFL policies, they aren't about to thumb their noses at the hiring guidelines.

How legitimate they make the coaching search, how they avoid an appearance of charade in a process that could well be little more than sham and window dressing, well, that's a story for another day. Trust us: If Saban takes the job, you will need reams of computer paper, and a few ink cassettes, to print out all the columns that will be written about the merits (or lack thereof) of the league's hiring policies. We are neither smart enough nor eloquent enough to compete with those wordsmiths who will wax poetic about the social implications involved in hiring a guy to draw up X's and O's.

Word has it...

From The Associated Press:

"LSU's athletic director said Friday that he believes the Miami Dolphins are on the verge of making an offer to hire Nick Saban as their head coach -- and that Saban is interested in the job.

'I think it's imminent. I think an offer is very imminent,' Skip Bertman said in a telephone interview from Baton Rouge. 'It's important for you to understand, he's not trying to leverage LSU. This is a career decision,' Bertman said."

From The Miami Herald:

"The Dolphins are expected to present Nick Saban with a contract proposal before the weekend is done and perhaps as early as [Friday], an NFL source said.

The offer, which is expected to go to Saban's agent Jimmy Sexton, is to include a clear definition of Saban's scope of power over Miami's football operation and a salary structure expected to average between $4 million and $5 million per year."

This much we know: Despite reports that a decision is imminent, that an offer to Saban was to be made Friday, the process is going to slow down a bit. One source close to the situation termed it "tapping on the brakes," while another described it as "hitting the pause button." Contract negotiations, initially slated to begin Friday, are on hold.

And the reason is that Miami needs time, probably through the weekend, to interview at least one minority candidate. And, we hope, a viable one, although we are hard-pressed to divine how the Dolphins can complete that task.

Which brings us back to the issue of timing. And to the even bigger element of qualified candidates, beyond Saban, for the Miami vacancy.

We certainly don't subscribe to the theory that the league is bereft of estimable minority candidates. Not with veteran assistants such as Romeo Crennel, Greg Blache, Jimmy Raye, Terry Robiskie, Jerry Gray, Tim Lewis, Maurice Carthon, Donnie Henderson and others gainfully employed by NFL franchises. The snag is that the league's anti-tampering rules preclude Miami from seeking out those men until the 2004 season concludes.

That's three more weeks and, take this one to the bank, Saban isn't going to allow things to drag out that long.

League vice president Greg Aiello confirmed Friday that there are no loopholes, not a single exception to the rules, that would permit the Dolphins to circumvent the stringent anti-tampering guidelines. Those rules, it should be noted, also apply to non-coaching employees of teams, meaning that Miami couldn't seek permission to speak with, say, Joe Greene, who in Pittsburgh holds the title of "special assistant" in the Steelers scouting department, and who once worked for the Dolphins.

One potential candidate who could be approached is former Raiders coach Art Shell, the Hall of Fame offensive lineman, currently a vice president in the league office. And there are unemployed coaches and coaches in the college ranks who would allow the Dolphins to meet the "Rooney Rule" mandates. Even being in compliance with the hiring policies, though, doesn't necessarily get Miami off the public relations hook.

John Wooten, the chairman of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, a group of coaches and league executives whose aim is to promote minority candidates for coaching and front office jobs, has been very vocal about the potential for a sham process. Several players have echoed that the team needs to interview legitimate candidates. Both Wooten and the Miami players have made their points well and should not be ignored. But how do you stop a team, as was the case when the Lions hired Mariucci, from bringing aboard the man they already have singled out as their best fit?

It's a knotty question. One that the league, despite its admirable efforts to increase the number of minorities in the coaching candidate "pipeline," must continue to address. As for Dolphins management, it must address a problem of a more immediate nature: How to comply with the "Rooney Rule" within the next week or so, essentially the period after which Saban's patience and interest figure to simultaneously run out.

For a franchise whose timing is about as good as that of starting quarterback A.J. Feeley, the clock is ticking.

if the Fins know who they want, why do they have to put on a charade while interviewing minorities?

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