Quite a quandary

Back in December, when the NFL first formed its diversity committee, chairman Dan Rooney implied that the minority hiring initiative was not etched in stone and could be tweaked over time.

Well, it's time for a little tweaking boys.

The Detroit Lions' Matt Millen-Steve Mariucci situation has exposed a gaping hole in the plan.

The whole thing was dreamed up as a way to force organizations that had head coaching vacancies to interview minority coaches.

I'm not a big fan of committees passing mandates as a general rule. I mean, are there any GM's who would decline to interview a coach because he's black? If they're out there, they should be thrown out of the league.

This mandate will affect mostly good intentioned owners who just want the best coach for their team. If that coach does not happen to be black, then we're looking at a lot of interviews that are done for no other reason than to satisfy a mandate.

As soon as the grumbling began in San Francisco about Mariucci being fired, the grumbling in Detroit began about bringing him home to Michigan.

When, through a shocking lapse in judgment, the 49ers finally did fire Mooch, the rumors about him going to the Lions were swirling before Matt Millen even got out of bed.

So it was a surprise to absolutely no one when Millen dropped the ax. Gee, why do you think he dumped Mornhinweg? So he could embark on a lengthy, indefinite head coaching search? Duh.

Consider this analogy:

You've got a cute girlfriend whose nice enough but doesn't seem like the kind of girl you want to be with long term. Of course, you don't tell her this because your an insensitive cad.

Meanwhile, you've got your eye on another girl. She has it all. She's rich, glamorous, and popular. You know in your heart of hearts that if you ever had a shot with her, you'd dump your current girlfriend and go for the gold.

Then suddenly, out of the blue, she becomes available. Not only that, you hear she may be interested in you. You know immediately what you must do.

You call your girlfriend and tell her it's over. You let her down easily. She's a nice girl. Give her the old "it's not you, it's me" routine.

Now, once you dump your girlfriend, are you gonna go out and interview every damn girl you run into just for the sake of being thorough? Hell no, if you wanted other girls, you would've dumped your girlfriend to begin with.

I know. I know. The process isn't perfect, but it doesn't have to be. It's just righting a wrong.

However, the situation in Detroit is something of a quandary and could end up making the guys on the committee look a little dim.

In the interest of maintaining the integrity of the mandate, the committee should just make a few adjustments, as any good coach would do.

But, instead, the league diversity committee, aglow with good intentions, wants to penalize the Lions. I'm not sure what more could've been done.

To his credit, Millen actually tried to bring in some assistant coaches for token interviews in accordance with the mandate. Not surprisingly, they dismissed the offers as a sham. There aren't many minority coaches, or white coaches for that matter, who would agree to the indignity of being brought in as a photo op.

The solution to all of this is easy.

Modify the mandate so it only takes effect when the head coaching vacancy is truly open. Don't make a joke out of it and force GM's to pretend the position is open even when it isn't, because that's not helpful. That's just stupid.