Lost in the hoopla of the Seattle Seahawks naming Pete Carroll as the team’s new coach this week was a report that surfaced last week involving Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Leslie Fraizer.

Fraizer, who is black, reportedly first declined to interview for Seattle’s head coach position because he felt the Seahawks were just pursuing him as a requirement to fulfill the Rooney Rule.

The rule, established in 2003, requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate for head coaching and front office positions.

Fraizer later changed his mind for reasons unknown and went through the process, allowing Seattle to later hire Caroll. The belief that Fraizer at first balked at talking to the Seahawks did not come as a surprise.

The Seattle vacancy opened up last Friday afternoon when Jim Mora Jr. was fired after one year, following a disappointing 5-11 season. Seattle’s primary target was Carroll, who was still the coach at Southern California. But according to a flurry of reports, Carroll had also expressed interest in the job.

But before Seattle could hire Caroll, it had to go through the mandatory Rooney Rule process.

Unlike Lane Kiffin, Fraizer’s resume showed that he had certainly paid his dues to be a head coach and deserved to be taken as a serious candidate. However, it seemed Seattle only brought him in as a “token” interview to satisfy the Rooney Rule.

This also seemed to happen before the Redskins hired Mike Shanahan. Assistant coach Jerry Gray, whom owner Dan Snyder never really considered to be a legitimate candidate, was used as a dog-and-pony show even while Jim Zorn was still the coach, for Washington to eventually hire Shanahan.

Both of these situations seem to indicate that the spirit of the rule was violated. Former Super Bowl-winning coach Tony Dungy, who turned down Seattle’s offer to be team president, took issue with the methods used this offseason in a recent interview.

“That is not what the Rooney Rule is supposed to be, (that) you make up your mind and then interview a candidate for it anyway just to satisfy the rule,” said Dungy, who retired from coaching the Colts last year and now is an analyst on NBC’s “Football Night in America” show.

“If the Jerry Gray situation is the way it has been described as happening, I don’t think it was fair. I don’t think I would ever interview for a job if my boss was not out of the job. I don’t blame Jerry; it’s the position he was put in, if it happened that way.”

In some instances, the Rooney Rule has helped black coaches such as Mike Tomlin, who was a little-known Vikings defensive coordinator, before the Steelers named him coach in 2007. Tomlin became only the second black coach along with Dungy to win a Super Bowl last season in his second season.

However, if teams aren’t serious about their interviews with certain minority candidates, why waste their time and sabotage or make a mockery or sham out of the intent of the Rooney Rule.

In the future, hopefully, NFL commissioner Roger Godell won’t go soft on enforcing the Rooney Rule when he is known for being tough on player conduct.

Contact sports reporter Corey Davis at 997-3111, ext. 44; e-mail cdavis@yourdailyjournal.com