A Delay of Game is No Reason to Celebrate

On Martin Luther King Day, the Minnesota Vikings interviewed Catherine Raiche for their vacant general manager position. A cheeky sportswriter described it as the current Philadelphia Eagles executive “chatting” with Vikings executives. Other media accounts heralded the historic nature of Raiche’s candidacy. One particularly earnest reporter remembered the groundbreaking path of the first female NFL general manager, Susan Tose Spencer, who was tasked with rebuilding the Philadelphia Eagles is 1983. She successfully stayed on the job until her father sold the club in 1985. But since her dad hired her, no one considered if she had formally interviewed for the position. Each one of these dispatches is more tone deaf than the next.

Hello? It’s 2022. Women accounted for 47.7% of the global work force last year. While it may be true that only 27% of those women were in leadership positions, is it really such an evolutionary jump to think that one of them might be qualified to run a football team? And yes, that was intended to be read with an eyeroll.

Many sports media pundits quietly believed the Vikings interviewed Raiche to check a box in compliance with the Rooney Rule, which was established in 2003 to ensure black coaches would be considered for high level positions. The NFL policy has been strengthened in the past two years to include GM and coordinator positions as well as women and other minorities, demonstrating that it is easier to change policy than it is to change culture.

One glance over at another major sports league makes as much clear. In 1993, as a precursor to Rooney Rule, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig sent out a league wide memo that was eventually dubbed the “Selig Rule.” The mandate required teams to interview at least one minority candidate for every managerial or front office opening. When Kim Ng became the manager of the Miami Marlins in 2020, 27 years after Selig articulated league policy, she was not only the first woman and Asian American general manager in MLB, but she was also one of the most overqualified as well having spent 30 years working in baseball with tenures as assistant GM at multiple clubs and a senior leadership role at the league office. She interviewed for a GM position for at least five different clubs.

The lack of NFL cheerleading over an interview request for a female candidate is grounded in other metrics. The Racial and Gender Report Card assesses hiring practices of women and people of color for leading professional and amateur sports and sporting organizations in the United States. After giving the NFL a D+ 2004 and 2005, the RGRC activated its own mercy rule and did not give the NFL a grade in 2006 due to insufficient data stating that “Unlike the other professional leagues, the NFL League Office does not participate in the Racial and Gender Report Card, either by providing League Office data or in reviewing and corroborating the data that we submit to each league prior to publication in order to try to achieve the most accurate analysis.”

By 2008, Roger Goodell’s office compiled with the assessment, and the league improved to a C-. In the 12 report cards since then, the NFL has never scored higher than a C+ on gender.

With that type of gender bias, Leonard Tose should be applauded for hiring his daughter, as opposed to any sort of marginalization over her accomplishments in the name of nepotism. Spencer is credited with drafting Randall Cunningham, who came into the league when black quarterbacks had almost the same unicorn status as female executives. After serving as the Eagles’ vice president, legal counsel, and acting GM, Spencer later found success as an owner of meat-processing plants, became an expert at navigating businesses largely populated with men and she published a book, Briefcase Essentials, a women’s survival guide in male-dominated businesses.

A week after Raiche’s interview, reports out of Minnesota indicate Vikings have narrowed the field to two candidates, neither of them is Raiche. Whenever a woman does get the nod as a GM in the NFL, she certainly should be celebrated. It will also mean that league diversity efforts slowly have impact. Nevertheless, NFL ownership must be called out on a delay of game penalty.