Stopped for No Gains

Nearly a third of the NFL’s 32 teams will have new head coaches next season, but the number of black coaches walking the sidelines is not expected to increase.

Eight teams have filled their vacancies in the last few weeks, leaving Buffalo and Oakland as the only franchises still interviewing. Herman Edwards is the only black head coach who has been hired, and he made a lateral move, going from the New York Jets to the Kansas City Chiefs.

The head of a group formed to promote minority hiring in the league called the situation “disappointing” and equated watching the opportunities evaporate one by one to “losing a game in the final two minutes.”

“It’s like you’re winning, you’re winning, you’re winning, and all of a sudden you lose,” said John Wooten, chairman of the Fritz Pollard Alliance.

Advocates of more diverse hiring practices were hoping to build on the momentum created by the success of Chicago under Coach Lovie Smith, Indianapolis under Coach Tony Dungy and Cincinnati under Coach Marvin Lewis. Smith, Dungy and Lewis, all of whom are black, had a combined regular-season record of 36-12 and their teams all won division championships.

Hope has dwindled, however, as several apparently qualified minority candidates have gone without job offers, among them Tim Lewis, New York Giant defensive coordinator; Ted Cottrell, Minnesota Viking defensive coordinator, and Maurice Carthon, Cleveland Brown offensive coordinator.

“It’s been disappointing,” said Wooten, a former NFL offensive lineman. “But I’ve said this to our guys: ‘Is it disappointing? Yes. Is it discouraging? No.’ I told them, ‘Don’t let this discourage you. Because if you do, it will cause despair and hopelessness.’ ”

Less than three weeks ago, Wooten said he thought there could be two or three new black coaches by month’s end. Now, apparently, the only black candidates still under consideration are Jim Caldwell and James Lofton.

Caldwell, who coaches Indianapolis quarterbacks and briefly filled in for Dungy as interim head coach, interviewed Friday with Buffalo. Lofton, San Diego’s receiver coach, has met with the Raiders and Bills.

Under threat of litigation, the NFL implemented a rule in 2002 requiring teams with head-coaching vacancies to interview at least one minority candidate. It was nicknamed the “Rooney Rule” for Pittsburgh Steeler owner Dan Rooney, the head of the league’s workplace diversity committee. This could be the first time since the rule went into effect that an off-season passes without the number of minority head coaches increasing.

That’s especially noteworthy considering the success of Smith, the NFL coach of the year, Lewis and Dungy.

“Those guys are the best advertisement we could have,” said Harry Carson, the alliance’s president. “Each of them was a case of a coach resurrecting a franchise that had fallen onto hard times.... You would think there would be some owners and general managers out there who would want to take a much deeper look and step outside of the box.”

Wooten said the alliance, named in honor of the late Fritz Pollard, the league’s first black coach, is not pushing for further changes to the rules governing the interviewing and hiring processes. In fact, he said he was pleased by the feedback he was getting from teams after they conducted interviews with minority candidates.

According to the NFL, 13 minority candidates -- 12 blacks and one Latino -- have interviewed 25 times since the end of the season, the most ever in both categories. Of the 568 NFL head coaches and assistants, 183 are black.

“The process is good, but we’re disappointed in the numbers so far,” said league spokesman Greg Aiello, referring to this year’s head-coach hiring cycle. “But we’re just looking at a snapshot. There’s a short term and a long term. And although the short team is not positive in regards to the results, the long term has yet to be determined.”

Cottrell, 58, who recently lost his job in Minnesota along with the rest of fired coach Mike Tice’s staff, said he felt good about his chances of replacing Tice after a three-hour interview with Viking owner Zygi Wilf and three other members of the organization. The group talked about a range of issues, among them Cottrell’s philosophies on practices, training camp, ways to organize a staff, dealing with problem players and managing crises -- of which the Vikings have had many.

“I felt I did a pretty good job,” Cottrell said. “I got my point across. I was told they were very pleased with the interview. Mr. Wilf said he was very impressed with me and he wished he had spent some time talking to me during the season. He said he saw a different side of me he’d never seen.”

The next time they spoke, however, Cottrell was told the franchise was heading in another direction and would be hiring Brad Childress, offensive coordinator for the Philadelphia’s Eagles.

“The disappointment hits you because you’re human,” Cottrell said. “But it’s something you don’t give up on. You keep on moving, hoping someone recognizes what you can do and wants to give you the opportunity to do it.”

An assistant coach in the pros since 1981, Cottrell also has worked for the Jets, Kansas City, Arizona, Buffalo, and the USFL’s New Jersey Generals. His name surfaced for other head-coaching vacancies in recent years, including ones in San Francisco and San Diego.

“Before, it seemed like experience counted -- years in the league, the number of teams you’d been with,” he said. “That’s why guys would move around, so they could get their portfolios diversified and expand the circle of coaches they knew and who knew them. But it seems like now that’s not the case.”

Of the seven new coaches, only the Jets’ Eric Mangini, formerly New England’s defensive coordinator, has head-coaching experience, and that came with a semipro team in Australia. The first-time head coaches are Childress; Detroit’s Rod Marinelli, formerly defensive line coach for Tampa Bay; Green Bay’s Mike McCarthy, formerly San Francisco’s offensive coordinator; New Orleans’ Sean Payton, formerly Dallas’ offensive coordinator; St. Louis’ Scott Linehan, formerly Miami’s offensive coordinator, and Gary Kubiak, Denver’s offensive coordinator who will be named Houston’s coach when the Broncos’ season ends.

Mangini, who turned 35 on Thursday, is the youngest of the new coaches. But Linehan, McCarthy and Payton, all 42, are younger than this season’s youngest NFL coach, Tampa Bay’s Jon Gruden, who also is 42.

“The people that were hired, we’re not in any way critical of them,” Wooten said. “There are a lot of young black and white coaches out here who deserve a chance as head coaches. They’ve paid their dues.

“I can’t holler about the interview process. It’s working. Some of our guys had three and four interviews. We’ve just got to tighten up somewhere to make sure that what we’re presenting is attractive enough to make them want to pull the trigger.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

ROMEO CRENNEL

* Team: Cleveland Browns

* 2005 record: 6-10.

* Overall: 6-10.

* Fact: Former New England defensive coordinator struggled in his first season.

TONY DUNGY

* Team: Indianapolis Colts.

* 2005 record: 14-3.

* Overall: 107-66.

* Fact: Was named runner-up to Smith in AP coach-of-the-year voting.

HERM EDWARDS

* Team: New York Jets.

* 2005 record: 4-12.

* Overall: 41-44.

* Fact: New Kansas City coach led Jets to playoffs three times since 2001.

DENNIS GREEN

* Team: Arizona Cardinals

* 2005 record: 5-11.

* Overall: 112-91.

* Fact: Led Minnesota to two NFC title games in 10 years.

MARVIN LEWIS

* Team: Cincinnati Bengals

* 2005 record: 11-6.

* Overall: 27-22.

* Fact: Bengals made the playoffs for the first time since 1990.

LOVIE SMITH

* Team: Chicago Bears

* 2005 record: 11-6.

* Overall: 16-17.

* Fact: Only second African American to be named AP coach of the year.

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Coaching changes that took place during the NFL season:

Buffalo: Mike Mularkey (resigned).

* Detroit: Steve Mariucci (fired), Dick Jauron, interim (Nov. 28), Rod Marinelli (hired Jan. 19).

* Green Bay: Mike Sherman (fired), Mike McCarthy (Jan. 12).

* Houston: Dom Capers (fired).

* Kansas City: Dick Vermeil (retired), Herm Edwards (Jan. 9).

* Minnesota: Mike Tice (fired), Brad Childress (Jan. 6).

* New Orleans: Jim Haslett (fired), Sean Payton (Jan. 18).

* N.Y. Jets: Herm Edwards (resigned), Eric Mangini (Jan. 17).

* Oakland: Norv Turner (fired).

* St. Louis: Mike Martz (fired), Scott Linehan (Jan. 19).

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Minority report

Lovie Smith (Chicago), Tony Dungy (Indianapolis) and Marvin Lewis (Cincinnati) won division titles this season. The six black head coaches in 2005:Minority coordinators or assistant head coaches in 2005:

*--* NAME POSITION TEAM Jerry Gray Defensive coordinator Buffalo Ron Rivera Defensive coordinator Chicago Maurice Carthon Offensive coordinator Cleveland Jim Caldwell Asst. head coach Indianapolis Ron Meeks Defensive coordinator Indianapolis Pete Rodriguez Special teams Jacksonville Charlie Baggett Asst. head coach Miami Ted Cottrell Defensive coordinator Minnesota Tim Lewis Defensive coordinator N.Y. Giants Donnie Henderson Defensive coordinator N.Y. Jets Jimmy Raye Offensive coordinator Oakland Mike Singletary Asst. head coach San Francisco Ray Rhodes Defensive coordinator Seattle Norm Chow Offensive coordinator Tennessee Greg Blache Defensive coordinator Washington

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