Notebook

Edwards urges minority assistants to interview

PHILADELPHIA -- New York Jets head coach Herman Edwards -- one of the NFL's three black head coaches -- delivered a challenge of sorts to the league's assistant coaching ranks on Wednesday.

Speaking at the annual coaching symposium that is conducted concurrent with the league's two-day spring owners meeting, Edwards made the case that every assistant coach who is invited to interview for a head coaching job should do so, no matter who is considered the front-runner for the vacancy.

Edwards shared those sentiments in a two-hour breakfast with the league's team owners, club executives and 130 or so NFL coaches of varying levels of responsibility. And while he didn't directly mention the controversial circumstances revolving around Detroit's hiring of head coach Steve Mariucci this offseason, it was clearly his motivation.

The Lions were cited by the NFL as having violated the league's new guidelines for including minority candidates in the head coaching interview process, even though five different minority candidates turned down Lions team president Matt Millen's offer to interview for the job. The widely held and correct perception around the league was that Mariucci was a slam dunk for the job.

"I just think for coaches not to [interview], it's not right," Edwards said. "If you have the opportunity, you need to go interview, because the great thing about interviewing is you can change somebody's mind. If someone gives me the chance to interview, I'm going, regardless if there's a guy who's the favorite.

"When I got the job here in New York, there were a couple guys who were supposed to be the favorites. You don't worry about that. If you get your day in court, you go in there and talk to them."

Edwards likened the interview process to game day in the NFL.

"When you look at what we do as coaches, we have a game plan that we put together Monday through Friday, and then on Sunday we go compete," he said. "Well, that's the interview process, and not to do that, to deny yourself an interview, is to say really the battle is already won before we can fight. And no coach has ever canceled a game because he looked at the odds in the newspaper and they say you're going to lose by six. We don't believe that. You go compete."

Pittsburgh owner Dan Rooney is the chairman of the league's workplace diversity committee. He and NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue on Wednesday both said a resolution to the Detroit situation is almost at hand. Tagliabue said a decision on whether to punish the Lions -- most likely a fine or reprimand -- would come in early June.

Rooney applauded Edwards' message, as well as the instructional talks that were delivered by fellow head coaches John Fox and Bill Cowher, and Baltimore general manager Ozzie Newsome, who is a member of the league's diversity working group.

In addition, NFL Players Association executive director Gene Upshaw had two members of the union's diversity committee -- Eagles cornerback Troy Vincent and Steelers tight end Mark Bruener -- speak to the assembly.

"What we're trying to do is encourage people to participate," Upshaw said. "You can not win unless you get in the game. You've got to get into the game and you've got to put your name out there. What Herman was saying is everyone that's asked should play the game."

Carson's emergence

If you're wondering just how the Los Angeles suburb of Carson emerged so quickly as a major player in the race to return the NFL to L.A. -- when Pasadena and the idea of a renovated Rose Bowl seemed to have a nine-month head start in the process -- you would do well to remember that this is one league that's all about leverage.

What better way to get Pasadena's attention than to start hyping what the 157-acre Carson site has to offer? That's exactly what the NFL did here this week when it approved a resolution that earmarks as much as $10 million for a two-year development option on the land that was once a city dump.

Don't believe us? Just listen to Houston owner Bob McNair, whose Texans became the league's latest expansion team when Los Angeles couldn't get its long-standing stadium problem solved in time to be awarded the NFL's 32nd franchise.

"The whole thing is a political process and sometimes people are not very responsive if they don't feel like they need to be responsive," McNair said. "If they just take the situation for granted maybe an adequate effort is not made. So I think you have to gauge the depth of the support, and the depth of the support is reflected in the action that's taken.

"You want to be in a community where there's deep support….There are a lot of considerations. Can you get through all of those? I don't know that anyone knows. There's further due diligence that has to be done. But I think that's why you have to look at multiple sites, because some of them might fall by the wayside and then all of a sudden you have nothing."

In essence, the NFL has moved on the Carson front because it figures two stadium options are better than one. Especially if the stadium competition sparks the kind of civic attention to the matter that doesn't occur in Southern California without a viable Plan B being identified.

"You're not going to be successful if you're in an area where the people really don't want you to be there," McNair said. "So that's the key. You just want to make sure there's a real demand for your presence, and then try to figure out how it works for the community, the league and the team.

"I've always said, even when we were competing with [L.A.], it's a big market and certainly it's a market the NFL needs to be in. But it has to be under the right conditions, because otherwise if you go in and it's not the right conditions, it's not going to be successful. So why go into an area where you're not going to succeed? That makes no sense."

Glazer's L.A. story

Early conventional wisdom holds that Tampa Bay owner Malcolm Glazer could wind up being the odds-on favorite to own a potential new team in the Los Angeles market. Glazer is considered the leading contender to buy baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers, and it is thought that he has designs on divesting himself of the Bucs at some point in order to hook up with the NFL in L.A.

But don't count on that scenario just yet. I asked one veteran NFL owner this week if Glazer was the horse to bet on in Los Angeles.

"I wouldn't think so," he said. "That's a strange thing. Very, very strange. We would have a problem with the cross-ownership issue. I don't know if we'd let him own a team in Los Angeles. And besides, why would anybody want to buy a baseball team? Nobody makes money in baseball."

The owner went on to say that Glazer has been so adept at turning around Tampa Bay's fortunes in his eight-year tenure that the league wouldn't encourage him to jump ship and move west. "Why would we let him leave there?" the owner said. "That's a thriving area. There are some owners who maybe should move, but he's not one of them."

Players want expansion

To the surprise of no one, the NFLPA is in favor of expansion rather than relocation in Los Angeles. Duh. Creating more jobs is always priority No. 1 for the players union.

"We'd like to see it," Upshaw said. "We all understand that's a big market. We all understand that's the second-largest market and we should be in that market. And as we go into the TV negotiations [the league's contract runs through 2005] and look toward the future, we need to address that."

That said, there is next to no sentiment among league owners in favor of further expansion. With a symmetrical 32-team, eight-division realignment just put in place last year, the NFL has zero desire to go back to the drawing board in terms of its scheduling format.

Some owners, such as Dallas' Jerry Jones, have openly said they don't consider expansion much of an option in Los Angeles. Other owners have made it clear they want no part of further diluting the league's profits under the revenue-sharing system. Lastly, few see a Los Angeles ownership group being able to make its operating model work if there's a $700 million (or so) expansion fee factored into the process.

Don Banks covers pro football for SI.com.

 

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