NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says the league is cooperating with Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier following a subpoena tied to a civil rights investigation into the Rooney Rule and other diversity hiring practices.
As theGrio previously reported, Uthmeier formally urged the NFL to suspend the Rooney Rule in March, threatening enforcement action if the league refused and calling the policy an act of “blatant race and sex discrimination”, and the NFL’s diversity hiring struggles have been documented for years, with Black coaching candidates consistently underrepresented at the top levels despite the rule’s existence. The Independent, via AOL, reported that Goodell addressed the NFL Rooney Rule investigation during league meetings in Orlando, confirming the league’s cooperation.
“I think we have been very clear about our programs, and we obviously evaluate them all the time, not just for how they get better, but also to make sure that they’re consistent with the law,” Goodell said of the NFL Rooney Rule investigation. “We’re engaging with the Florida attorney general and will continue to. We’ll share everything we’re doing with them. We think it’s certainly within the law, but also something very positive.”
Uthmeier sent his subpoena on May 13, requiring the league to appear at the attorney general’s office in Tallahassee on June 12 and produce extensive records, including “all diversity reports, coaching census data, or demographic surveys that reflect the race and sex of coaching staffs of the teams from 2017 to the present.”
The NFL Rooney Rule investigation extends beyond the rule itself to include the league’s accelerator program, launched in 2022 to connect diverse coaching and front office candidates with team owners and executives. The program recently underwent changes and now includes non-minority participants, with nearly half of this year’s cohort being white men. Goodell defended the program, saying participants are “the best of the best and they are a very diverse group.”
The Rooney Rule, first implemented in 2003, requires teams to interview at least two external minority candidates for head coach and general manager openings, and at least one minority candidate for coordinator roles. Named after late Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, the rule was designed to open doors that had historically been closed to Black coaches and executives in a league where the majority of players are Black.
