Bear Digest

NFL Opts Against Spirit of Rooney Rule and Denies Bears Draft Picks

It's obvious to everyone except the NFL how the Bears deserve compensatory draft picks but the league released its list Monday and Chicago is not on it.
Gene Chamberlain|
Falcons GM Ian Cunningham speaks at the combine, when the top personnel executives traditionally speak.
Falcons GM Ian Cunningham speaks at the combine, when the top personnel executives traditionally speak. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

It's final now and the Bears will not get the extra third-round draft pick this year or next year for losing assistant general manager Ian Cunningham to the Atlanta Falcons.

The NFL usually does the wrong thing and has once again with compensatory picks.

The league was slow to address the inequity in hiring practices at head coach and general manager positions, just as they were too slow to address problems with concussions.

When they finally did come up with a way to help get more minorities promoted to head coaching positions and GM spots, it has been largely ineffective and perceived racist hiring continued. The Rooney Rule awards teams a pair of third-round picks if they lose a minority personnel employee to another team as the top personnel guy or from coordinator to head coach.

Apparently this rule doesn't apply to Chicago.

Cunningham went to the Falcons, who also created another position called "president of football" and put their former quarterback, Matt Ryan, in this vague role. It's been beaten to death but Ryan actually has no real responsibility in the draft or free agency beyond chipping in with his opinion every now and then. He freely admits this, and Cunningham agreed the Bears should be getting the draft picks.

Atlanta even had Cunningham stand up at the combine when the top personnel decision makers do their annual press conferences and talked to reporters. Ryan didn't.

The league released the comp picks Monday that are awarded to teams for draft picks lost in free agency. There were 33 given out to 15 teams.

The Ravens, Eagles and Steelers get four each, the 49ers, three, the Cowboys, Broncos, Lions, Colts, Raiders, Rams and Jets two each, and the Packers, Vikings, Chiefs and Saints one each.

The Bears get zippo. They weren't do any but they should have received third-round picks for 2026-27 because of the Rooney Rule.

They didn't make a big stink about it, but at the combine it was obvious they expected the league to examine the situation and act accordingly.

"There’s a set of rules that has been put in place that I think can be applied to this situation," GM Ryan Poles said. "So we have communicated through the right channels. We’ll see what happens going forward."

They're not getting the picks based on technicality, a loophole caused by the wording of new title just created. It lets the NFL avoid rewarding a team that obviously did the right thing in hiring a minority GM, who hired a minority assistant GM, and has lost him to a GM job in Atlanta now. There is no other way to interpret what happened.

This type of thing is typical in the NFL, though.

There were 10 head coach hirings this year and none went to black candidates. Only one coach was a minority member, Robert Saleh in Tennessee. The 49ers do not get a comp pick for losing Saleh to Tennessee because he needed to be in San Francisco two straight years for the 49ers to qualify. This much is in the rules and not disputed.

What isn't in the rules is what happened to the Bears. A team created an odd structural position not in charge of personnel and those hired acknowledge this. The Bears did what should have been done, but still get nothing.

The spirit of the law and its actual meaning are clear. It's meant to stop racist hiring practices.

It would have been very easy for the NFL to simply look at what has happened, how the Falcons’ top personnel guy really is Cunningham and not Ryan just like the Falcons say. They can just say the unusual setup caused some confusion at first and award the picks, but it’s clear Cunningham got a promotion and calls the shots.

In this case, though, the NFL likes being in that racist role again better than being righteous.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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