Marvin Lewis: NFL's plan to incentivize minority hires 'offensive'

While the NFL announced enhancements to the Rooney Rule on Tuesday, a plan was also proposed to incentivize minority hirings of coaches and general managers with improved draft picks.

Former Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis voiced his displeasure with the proposal, which was reportedly tabled and met with a mixed response at a virtual owners meeting.

"It was offensive, definitely offensive," Lewis told Mike Preston of The Baltimore Sun. "It was like having Jim Crow laws.

"Draft picks are like gold," he added. "That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. As a head coach, no one wants to be hired or put in that position."

Under the new Rooney Rule, clubs will now be required to interview at least two external minority candidates for head coaching jobs, one minority candidate for any coordinator vacancies, and one external minority candidate for senior football operations or general manager positions.

Despite his gripes, Lewis considers it a positive that the NFL - which currently employs four minority head coaches and two minority general managers - realized there was a problem.

"We had come a long way as far as assistant coaches, but we never made any inroads in management," he said. "This will be a plus requiring more than one minority to be interviewed because it will cause them to take a deeper dive. This will allow more minorities more opportunities."