After Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said this week that the NFL’s Rooney Rule mandates hiring practices that violate Florida law, the league said it believes its policies are consistent with the law.
Uthmeier said his office sent a letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell threatening possible enforcement actions if the league doesn’t suspend the rule, which was established in 2003 to encourage owners and team presidents to consider a diverse range of candidates for team leadership positions.
“The NFL’s use of the Rooney Rule violates Florida law by requiring race-based considerations in hiring,” Uthmeier said in a video posted on social media Wednesday. “Florida law is clear: Hiring decisions cannot be based on race. And the Rooney Rule mandates race-based interviews and incentivizes race-based decisions. That’s discrimination.”
NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller said in a statement Friday: “We are reviewing the letter. We believe our policies are consistent with the law and reflect our commitment to fairness, opportunity, and building the strongest possible teams.”
The NFL describes the Rooney Rule as promoting “diverse leadership among NFL clubs to ensure that promising candidates have the opportunity to prove they have the necessary skills and qualifications to excel.”
Uthmeier, the former chief of staff for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), asked the league to confirm “no later than May 1” that it would no longer enforce the Rooney Rule for its Florida franchises. The NFL has three teams in Florida: the Miami Dolphins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Jacksonville Jaguars.
“We’re demanding the NFL suspend the Rooney Rule, and failure to do so may result in enforcement actions against the league for race-based discrimination,” Uthmeier said.
In the most recent offseason head coaching hiring cycle, no Black coaches were hired for any of the league’s 10 vacancies. Robert Saleh, who is of Lebanese descent, was hired as the Tennessee Titans’ head coach — the lone minority head-coaching hire this offseason.
Goodell said at this year’s Super Bowl that he remains committed to the Rooney Rule and that the league needs to continue encouraging diverse candidates for the most important team leadership openings.
“I believe in diversity,” Goodell said then. “I think we have become more diverse across every platform, including coaching. But we have some more work to do. There’s got to be more steps.”
The Rooney Rule was named for Dan Rooney, the late owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who was chairman of the NFL’s Workplace Diversity Committee (now known as the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee). The rule originally required every team with a head-coaching vacancy to interview at least one diverse candidate before making a hire.
Art Rooney II, the son of Dan Rooney and the Steelers’ current owner, told ESPN on Friday that “there’s no question that the environment has changed in recent years” and that the NFL has “an obligation to make sure that our policies comply with the laws, whatever the law is, and whatever the changes in law might be. We’ve got to look at that and make sure we’re in compliance. … That’s just the environment we’re existing in today.”
The initial focus of the league’s diversity committee was on the historically low number of minorities in head-coaching positions. About 70 percent of the league’s players — and three head coaches — are Black.
“The Rooney Rule doesn’t limit opportunity; it expands it,” Michele Meyer-Shipp, director of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, which works to expand access and opportunity within professional football leadership, said in a statement. “It doesn’t cap who a club can consider or dictate who gets hired and it’s not a hiring rule. What it does is increase fair competition and ensure a true merit-based process by opening the door beyond the traditional ‘tap on the shoulder’ system, so the best candidates from all backgrounds are actually seen, evaluated, and can compete.”
Rooney Rule requirements include the following:
• Clubs must conduct an in-person interview with at least two external diverse — minority and/or female — candidates for any general manager or head-coaching opening.
• Clubs must interview at least two minorities and/or women for all coordinator positions.
• Clubs must interview at least one diverse candidate for the quarterback coach position or any senior-level executive position at the club.
In January 2007, the Steelers hired Mike Tomlin as head coach to succeed 15-year coach Bill Cowher. Tomlin, who is Black, had served one season as a defensive coordinator in the NFL and, by many accounts, might not have surfaced as a head-coaching candidate without the Rooney Rule.
According to a newspaper account at the time, Art Rooney II, then the team president, said Tomlin “probably was a long shot.” Tomlin coached the Steelers for 19 years, won the Super Bowl in the 2008 season and never had a sub-.500 record as head coach.