Curran: Patriots’ strange GM search could set off ‘alarm bells’ in NFL originally appeared in NBC Sports Boston
Did the New England Patriots skillfully exploit a loophole in NFL rules, or needlessly open themselves to skepticism at best and punishment at worst?
After parting ways with de facto head coach/general manager Bill Belichick in January, the Patriots navigated free agency and the NFL Draft without an official GM. Director of Scouting Eliot Wolf served as front office leader in practice but not in titlemeaning New England could avoid holding an official GM search in January and February, letting Wolf run the show.
NFL rules required the Patriots to conduct an official search of some point, however, to at least comply with the Rooney Rule, which states that teams must interview at least two minority candidates for head coach, general manager and executive vacancies. So New England is conducting this “search” now, despite the open secret that Wolf is expected to be named football chief executive.
As expected, several potential candidates refused offers for an interview for a job that already seems busy. And as our Patriots Insider, Tom E. Curran, pointed out Thursday in Boston Sports TonightThe way the Patriots handled this entire situation will likely raise eyebrows across the NFL.
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“This is going to set off alarm bells across the league, I think,” Curran said, “with all the other organizations looking at this and saying, ‘Don’t they need to do this the way we all do?’ I don’t have to go through the same obstacles because they don’t feel like it… That doesn’t make sense.'”
It appears the Patriots technically complied with the Rooney Rule after supposedly interviewing Philadelphia Eagles scouting director Brandon Hunt and former Carolina Panthers director of player negotiations and salary cap manager Samir Suleiman. But Curran didn’t rule out the possibility that the NFL could punish New England if it believes the team went through the process in bad faith.
“They could certainly do that,” Curran said. “I mean, I would have to understand what the (Patriots) defense is. It is still ambiguous what exactly they are trying to accomplish.”
Perhaps the Patriots were confident enough in Wolf to hand him the front office reins immediately rather than conduct an official GM search in January while they interviewed head coaching candidates for the job that ultimately went to Jerod Mayo. But that decision seems shortsighted now, especially if it brings unwanted attention (or worse, discipline) to the franchise.
