Jamie Aron, AP's pro football reporter, does a great job of explaining why the hire was a foregone conclusion.
But, before he could hire Garrett, Jones had to interview two head coach prospects that he wasn't going to hire. Aron explains:
Jones probably would’ve hired him during the season, but had to wait because of a league rule requiring him to consider minority candidates. The only two people he interviewed were black: receivers coach Ray Sherman and Miami assistant head coach Todd Bowles.How absurd can you get? I feel sorry for Jones, Sherman and Bowles for having to go through the charade.
Bowles and Sherman probably went through with the charade because they wanted to look cooperative for potential other owners, who might actually want to hire them.
They do the same thing in the auto industry nowadays. When the "factory" (Honda, Toyota, Ford, Nissan, etc., corp headquarters) is looking to create a new "open-point" (brand new franchise location in a new or existing market), they look at a range of minority candidates before they look at anyone else to potentially bid for the new point.
ReplyDeleteIt is a silly charade and bad for business. Sometimes there is a minority candidate who is not only qualified but the most qualified and he would've gotten the open-point anyway. Other times there are no qualified minority candidates but the factory might pick one to become the dealer principal anyway for political reasons and to meet internal dealer body minority quotas. The result in this case is an inferior business partner and manager who does not meet the sales and general business potential of the brand in the new open-point, hurts the image of the brand amongst customers and other dealers (who are incensed that they've worked hard to build a successful sales reputation and relationship with the factory for nothing), all while opening the factory to potential future legal liability in the form of absurd discrimination lawsuits.
And this part is the most harrowing, of course, because once the unqualified minority candidate becomes dealer principal, he can basically abuse his position and his franchise as much as he wants, sometimes even engaging in corrupt business practices that fringe on illegality, without fear of the factory seeking vengeance because if they do they can plead "discrimination" and file a lawsuit and tie the factory up for years at the cost of millions of dollars in legal fees.
Everyone is brought down by these charades: the factory because it isn't maximizing its own potential, the dealer body because they feel they've been shortchanged in a number of ways and most of all the minority candidate, who is often in way over his head with an opportunity he/she never should've been granted and who has to suffer the misgivings of his/her fellow dealers who distrust that the candidate earned the dealer principal position because they deserved it, rather than because of a welfare principle operating at the factory level for political reasons.