They’re moving in the right direction, even if it will start with a half-measure.
According to Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal, NFL owners will consider during their fall meetings, starting today, a new rule regarding the annual coaching carousel.
The agenda includes a proposal that would prevent in-person interviews with coaching candidates employed by other teams until after the divisional round of the playoffs has concluded.
The mere consideration of this possibility acknowledges the distraction and divided loyalties created by permitting assistant coaches whose teams are still alive in the postseason to interview for their dream jobs. And it suggests that the owners should take this the rest of the way and prevent all in-person interviews until after the Super Bowl.
Currently, things move too fast. Decisions get made too quickly. And assistant coaches who still have a job to do necessarily end up spending time that could be devoted to their current jobs thinking about potentially getting their next jobs. The one that will change everything, especially financially.
It’s a change that is long overdue. And it appears that the NFL might start down that path. Hey, owners, why not just take it all the way home and prevent in-person interviews until after the final confetti has fallen?