<P> 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 . </P> <P> As of June 15, 2009, Rooney Rule requirements now 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 . </P> <P> Currently, 5 of the 32 head coaches in the NFL are African - American, with 1 additional head coach who is Hispanic . Recently, legal scholars have advocated for extending the Rooney Rule to college football, where the number of minority head coaches hovers around 6%, which is significantly lower than the 12.6% of the total US population which is African - American . </P> <P> In 2003, the NFL fined the Detroit Lions $200,000 for failure to interview African - American candidates for the team's vacant head coaching job . After Marty Mornhinweg was fired, the Lions immediately hired former San Francisco 49ers head coach Steve Mariucci (a native of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan) to replace him without interviewing any other candidates . The Lions claimed they attempted to interview other candidates but that the African - American candidates withdrew from interviews, believing Mariucci's hiring was inevitable . The Lions wouldn't have a minority head coach until hiring Jim Caldwell in 2014 . </P>

How many african-american head coaches in the nfl