Jim Irsay Hiring Jeff Saturday as Colts Coach Shows Exactly How Owners Circumvent the Rooney Rule

We need to talk about Jeff Saturday being pulled off the street to finish the 2022 season as head coach of the Indianapolis Colts.

Look, I like Jeff Saturday. I have nothing against him as a person. I played against him, he always seemed like a great leader, and all of my old teammates that know him have nothing but good things to say about the man. This take isn’t really about Jeff Saturday.

That being said, it’s absolutely outrageous that they hired this man to finish out the season as the Colts head coach. 

I see people talking about “Jeff Saturday is a Colts legend.” 

Well if Colts fans want him to stay a legend, maybe there should be a better plan than handing the controls of a crashing plane over to someone without flight experience.

And speaking of Colts legends, doesn’t Indianapolis already have Reggie Wayne as a first year receiver’s coach, and Cato June in his seventh year of coaching college football or above?

It would be one thing if Jim Irsay was installing Jeff Saturday as an admission that this season is lost, the direction of the team needs re-thought, and the search for a replacement was going to start immediately. 

But that’s not what this is. 

Jim Irsay dared reporters to bet against Jeff Saturday as Colts head coach, and alluded to the possibility of making the playoffs THIS SEASON. 

I’ll take your bet, and your money Jim. 

But I at least want to thank Jim Irsay for perfectly illustrating the frustration with the ineffectiveness of the Rooney Rule when put up against a rich old white man’s “gut instinct.”

While Irsay said that the Colts have every plan to honor the Rooney Rule and go through a legitimate interview process after the season to gauge the vision of multiple candidates, including minority candidates, he also said this about Jeff Saturday:

“He’s the best man for the job, and there’s no question about it in my mind. I’ve been around it a long time. He’s extremely tough and he’s a leader. You have to be a great thinker, work with people, be open-minded, create a culture where people trust you. You have to have experience, draw on experience in your life. You know it when you see it.“

Jim Irsay has a good feeling in his tummy about a white player that was a solid leader in his playing days, and believes that despite no track record whatsoever of producing any kind of results that would prove those feelings to be rooted in reality, that Jeff Saturday is the right man to make the Indianapolis Colts a playoff team in 2022.

Since Jim Irsay is taking bets, how much do we want to bet that Jim Irsay is more invested in his gut being proven right so he can keep Jeff Saturday on as head coach, rather than earnestly following the NFL rules that were designed to keep the exact situation of a rich man’s nostalgia from costing overqualified minority candidates an opportunity?

We spent years and years hearing that “if only black coaches had more experience as a coordinator,” or “if only more black players got into coaching on the offensive side of the ball,” then the layers of prejudice that kept them from the penultimate opportunities of the profession would erode away.

That was bullshit.

Oh, and congratulations to the Houston Texans now having grounds to dump Lovie Smith for Josh McCown. The absurdity of the situation was the only thing keeping the Texans from making this happen last year, but now they won’t even be the first team in their own division to do it.

Let that sink in.