[Bette]

From the moment discussions began, critics railed against the idea.
What Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney advocated for the NFL, the detractors claimed, was a divisive social issue - affirmative action.
Troubled by the league's poor track record of diversity on the sidelines, Rooney looked for ways to shake up the cozy old boys' network that recycled the same white coaches and their homogenous understudies.
Rooney wanted teams to interview at least one minority candidate for every head-coaching vacancy. His vision was met with resistance, but he lobbied until the NFL in 2002 adopted the practice of what is now known as the Rooney Rule.
Many still resent the rule. Some say it's patronizing, a waste of time for black coaches who won't be hired. Others say it's unfair to some white coaches.
And after five years in existence, the Rooney Rule might finally fade away, not because the mandate has been proven a farce, but because it has worked so well.
"I think there will come a time when it will be unnecessary to have a Rooney Rule," Rooney said this week from his Pittsburgh office.
When the Los Angeles Raiders made Art Shell the first black head coach in the modern NFL in 1989, it generated widespread attention. Although progress was slow - white candidates filled all 11 openings in 1997 - there have been enough black head coaches that it's no longer a monumental occurrence when another gets hired.
And that's the goal.



Rooney Rule slowly fading