The NFL said Thursday it will investigate whether the Oakland Raiders violated the ”Rooney Rule” when they hired Jon Gruden as coach.
The Fritz Pollard Alliance called for the investigation on Wednesday out of concern that Raiders owner Mark Davis came to an agreement with Gruden before the team interviewed any minority candidates as required by the NFL since 2003.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a statement that the NFL will ”look into this.”
The Fritz Pollard Alliance is dedicated to promoting diversity and equality of job opportunity in the coaching Marquis Haynes Jersey , front office and scouting staffs of NFL teams.
Davis said Tuesday at the news conference introducing Gruden as the team’s new coach that he had been trying to make the move for six years and finally believed it would happen after a meeting in Philadelphia on Christmas Eve, the day before Gruden worked a game between the Raiders and Eagles on ESPN.
”I felt pretty confident that he was all-in,” Davis said. ”And that’s the term that we were using in our discussions and everything, are you all-in? And I never wavered from all-in. And this time he didn’t waver, either.”
Davis fired Jack Del Rio a week later and the team officially hired Gruden on Jan. 6. Davis also said he wouldn’t have fired Del Rio if he didn’t believe Gruden would sign on as coach.
”I believe that I would’ve sat down with Jack and we would’ve figured out coordinators and assistant coaches and things like that and try to figure out how to reinvigorate the franchise through Jack,” he said.
Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie said Tuesday he interviewed two minority candidates before Gruden’s hiring was announced. Those candidates were Oakland tight ends coach Bobby Johnson and Southern California offensive coordinator Tee Martin.
The Raiders haven’t commented on the request from the Fritz Pollard Alliance.
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Showing yet again that good slalom beats good downhill in Alpine combined Ryan Getzlaf Jersey , Victor Muffat-Jeandet rose from 27th place to win a World Cup on Friday.
The Frenchman got his first career win using the fastest run in slalom to finish 0.96 seconds ahead of Pavel Trikhichev of Russia.
Trikhichev, who also got a career-best result, had been 29th after the morning downhill, earning use of the best snow surface in slalom when the top 30 start in reverse order.
”Combined is always a crazy day,” Muffat-Jeandet said. ”You have to fight to stay in the top 30 in downhill.”
Peter Fill of Italy was the best of the downhill specialists, placing third 1.15 behind Muffat-Jeandet after being fourth fastest in the morning. Fill edged Kjetil Jansrud of Norway off the podium by 0.01.
Trikhichev’s previous World Cup best was 16th last Saturday in a giant slalom at nearby Adelboden.
”Surprised Ryan Kesler Jersey , I was really shocked,” the Russian said of his runner-up performance which earned 20,000 Swiss francs ($20,600) in prize money. ”I (thought I) could be top 10 but podium is just, `Wow.”’
First-run leader Vincent Kriechmayr of Austria started his slalom run with 2.55 in hand over Muffat-Jeandet but quickly skied out.
World champion Luca Aerni of Switzerland also failed to finish the slalom when holding a 0.40-second lead over Muffat-Jeandet from downhill.
When Aerni won the gold medal on home snow at St. Moritz last February, he was 30th in downhill and got a first run on a clean slalom surface. The 2015 world title was also won by the 30th fastest downhill racer Cameron Artis-Payne Jersey , Austrian star Marcel Hirscher.
The field on Friday was weakened by the winner of the previous combined this season, Alexis Pinturault of France, opting not to start to focus on training for a slalom on Sunday.
Pinturault’s absence allowed Jansrud to close the gap on his third place in the overall World Cup points standings led by six-time defending champion Hirscher who will next race Sunday.
Though men’s and women’s combined are on the Olympic program at the Pyeongchang Games next month, the event’s long-term future is in question.
A mixed gender team event in parallel slalom debuts at the Olympics and the more dynamic, television-friendly racing format is being promoted by the International Ski Federation.
Muffat-Jeandet suggested there would be no World Cup combined event next year at Wengen, where he got a first career podium finish in 2015.
”It’s a little bit of a shame because maybe I will not be coming back in downhill because there will not be a combined Fozzy Whittaker Jersey ,” he said.
The highlight of the three-race meeting is the storied Lauberhorn downhill on Saturday over 4.3 kilometers, the longest course on the World Cup circuit.
On a shorter 2.9-kilometer course on Friday, the fastest speed of 146.97 kph (92 mph) was clocked by Dominik Paris of Italy. He placed fifth overall, 0.03 behind teammate Fill.
Clear blue skies are forecast on Saturday for Switzerland’s favorite Alpine race which was cancelled last year because of poor weather.