Commissioner Roger Goodell believes its Rooney Rule, which promotes diversity in hiring practices, does not violate Florida law despite a recent letter from Attorney General James Uthmeier emphatically stating otherwise. Photo: NFL.com
Recent threats of legal action from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier will not stop the NFL from enforcing its Rooney Rule.
Commissioner Roger Goodell defended the initiative, created to increase diversity in key positions, at the NFL’s annual meeting on Tuesday. He pledged to “engage” with Uthmeier, who said last week that the Rooney Rule and similar policies “brazenly” violate Florida law.
In a letter to Goodell and the owners of Florida’s three NFL teams, dated March 25, Uthmeier gave the league until May 1 to confirm it will no longer enforce the Rooney Rule and multiple other diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. He wrote that “failure to provide such confirmation may result in a civil rights enforcement action.”
“One thing that doesn’t change is our values, and we believe that diversity has been a benefit to the National Football League,” Goodell told the media on Tuesday.
“We are well aware of the laws, and where the laws are changing and evolving. We think the Rooney Rule is consistent with those.”
Republican leadership in Florida will likely disagree with that sentiment. State lawmakers, along party lines, recently passed legislation banning local governments from taking any official action related to DEI initiatives.
The NFL adopted the Rooney Rule in 2003 to ensure that “promising candidates have the opportunity to prove they have the necessary skills and qualifications to excel. It requires all 32 teams to interview two external minority or female candidates for general manager or head coaching vacancies.
Some stakeholders believe that teams treat the policy as a perfunctory exercise. Just three – the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New York Jets, and Houston Texans – employ Black head coaches (9.4%), despite that demographic accounting for 53.5% of all players.
However, Uthmeier believes the Rooney Rule requires teams to “limit, segregate, and classify applicants for certain employment and training opportunities because of race and sex,” which is “precisely what Florida law forbids.”
Goodell emphasized on Tuesday that the Rooney rule is “not a hiring mandate.” He also noted that the longstanding policy has evolved over the past 23 years, and said the NFL would “continue to do that as circumstances warrant.”
“It’s intended to try to help, and it’s been used by industries far beyond football and far beyond the United States to help identify candidates, and a diverse set of candidates, to bring in better talent … and folks make those decisions individually,” Goodell said.
“Those are, I think, principles of how we try to get better. Bring in the best talent.”
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