coach until 1996 when he took over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Another former Steelers assistant, Marvin Lewis, also struggled to find a head coaching position despite immense success as the Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator and would not find a head coaching position until being hired by the Cincinnati Bengals in 2003, the year the Rooney Rule went into effect. Impact Since the Rooney Rule was established, several NFL franchises have hired African-American head coaches, including the Steelers themselves, who hired Mike Tomlin before their 2007 season. (The Steelers, however, had already interviewed Ron Rivera, who is ethnically Hispanic, to fulfill the requirement before interviewing Tomlin, and Rooney himself contends that Tomlin's hiring did not result from the Rule.) At the start of the 2006 season, the overall percentage of African-American coaches had jumped to 22%, up from 6% prior to the Rooney Rule. For the 2019 season, eight NFL teams had head coaching vacancies to fill. However, only one team, the Miami Dolphins, hired a non-white coach, Brian Flores, who was then fired after three seasons (the final two of which were winning seasons). , the NFL had three African-American head coaches, the same number as in 2003 when the Rooney Rule was adopted. Going into the 2022 season, the number of minority head coaches by NFL definition is six. Todd Bowles (Tampa Bay), Lovie Smith (Houston), and Mike Tomlin (Pittsburgh) are African-American; Ron Rivera (Washington) is Hispanic; Mike McDaniel (Miami) is multiracial; and Robert Saleh (New York Jets) is a Muslim of Lebanese origin. Application The rule does not apply if an assistant coach has language in his contract guaranteeing him the head coaching job in case of an opening. For example, this was the case when Mike Martz took over as head coach of the St. Louis Rams before the 2000 season. Also, the requirement does not apply if the assistant coach taking over the head position is a minority, as was the case with Mike Singletary and the San Francisco 49ers in late 2008. , Rooney Rule requirements apply to all searches for senior football operations positions within the NFL, regardless of a team's title for that position. It now also includes all ethnic minorities, not just African Americans. , two of the 32 head coaches in the NFL are African-American, with one Hispanic head coach. Recently, some legal scholars have advocated for extending the Rooney Rule