Florida is preparing to take on the challenge of eliminating the NFL’s long-standing Rooney Rule, which aimed to increase the number of minority coaches and executives in the league.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier called out NFL officials in a letter on Wednesday, March 25, saying the Rooney Rule and other similar hires are “unlawful” under Florida’s civil rights laws.
In a letter to league commissioner Roger Goodell, Uthmeier wrote: “As a Floridian, I wish the Miami Dolphins good luck with their new head football coach. As Florida’s general counsel, however, I write with a word of caution to the NFL over its race- and gender-based hiring policies.”
Uthmeier pressed the NFL to confirm by May 1 that it would no longer enforce its policies requiring teams to interview minority candidates, including women, or the state could take “civil rights enforcement steps.”
“NFL fans in Florida don’t care about the color of their coach’s skin. They care about the colors their coach wears and whether those colors win on the football field.
The Rooney Rule and its ramifications are illegal in Florida,” Florida AG Uthmeier concluded.
What is the NFL’s Rooney Rule?
The Rooney Rule was adopted in 2003 to ensure leadership diversity among NFL clubs with the goal of promoting promising candidates with equal opportunities to prove they can lead based on their skills and qualifications.
To this end, the NFL created a committee called the “Workplace Diversity Committee” and later renamed it the “Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee.”
Thus, it is named after the committee chairman at the time, Dan Rooney, who owned the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Rooney Rule was formulated in 2003 and requires NFL clubs to interview two external minority candidates for vacant head coach, general manager and coordinator positions.
What has sparked criticism of the Rooney Rule is that this offseason, only Tennessee Titans coach Robert Saleh, who is of Lebanese descent, was brought on board.
Out of 10 vacancies, only one minority candidate landed a top coaching job.
On the other hand, the NFL confirmed that it received the letter and that the league was reviewing its contents, as reported ESPN.
“We believe our policies comply with the law and reflect our commitment to fairness, opportunity and building the strongest teams possible,” said NFL Executive Vice President Jeff Miller.
