NFL’s ‘Rooney Rule’ Targeted In Florida DEI Crackdown

Topline

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier issued a subpoena to the National Football League on Wednesday targeting the league’s decades-old “Rooney Rule,” suggesting it violates Florida law by promoting racial or gender diversity in hiring coaches.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier alleged the NFL’s “Rooney Rule” violates state law. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

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Key Facts

Uthmeier said in a letter to the NFL, which he posted on X on Wednesday, the NFL’s “inclusive hiring” policies “raise significant concerns under Florida law,” further accusing the league of a “history of open discrimination.”

Uthmeier cited the NFL’s “Rooney Rule,” which was implemented in 2003 and requires teams to interview at least two people of color or women for head coach and general manager positions, and to interview at least one person of color or woman for quarterback coach and senior executive positions.

The attorney general’s letter follows a March letter he wrote to the NFL demanding the league drop the rule by May 1, which it refused to do.

Following the March letter, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the league is “well aware of the laws” and believes the “Rooney Rule is consistent with those,” adding the rule has “been around a long time” and will continue to evolve.

Why Is Uthmeier Challenging The “rooney Rule”?

In his March letter, Uthmeier said the “Rooney Rule” requires teams to interview some coaching candidates “because of their race,” which he says is “discriminatory and violates Florida law.” Uthmeier cited the Florida Civil Rights Act, saying the rule requires “precisely what Florida law forbids” by requiring teams to “limit, segregate, and classify applicants for certain employment and training opportunities because of race and sex.” The Florida Civil Rights Act outlaws employment discrimination based on race, sex, color, national origin and other characteristics, and it bans segregating or classifying employees or applicants in a way that would “deprive any individual of employment opportunities.”

Key Background

The Rooney Rule is named for Dan Rooney, former owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who also chaired the NFL’s diversity committee. The NFL says on its website the policy is intended to “ensure that qualified candidates from a wide range of backgrounds are identified and considered for leadership roles.” The NFL reportedly softened some of the language it used on its Rooney Rule webpage after Uthmeier’s March letter, Bloomberg reported. A previous version said the rule is meant to “foster and provide opportunity to diverse leadership throughout the NFL,” while the current text says the rule is “designed to expand opportunity and strengthen the NFL’s talent pipeline across leadership roles.”

Tangent

The NFL has been an occasional culture war target in recent years, with the most recent major bout of outrage centered on Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show, which was performed mostly in Spanish. President Donald Trump called his performance “absolutely terrible” and an “affront to the Greatness of America,” while Goodell repeatedly defended the Puerto Rican musician, calling him one of the “great artists in the world.” The league has also faced some blowback for initiatives critics have deemed “woke,” including holding performances of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” known as the “Black National Anthem,” before the Super Bowl, and for including messages like “End Racism” and “Choose Love” in the end zones. The NFL also faced blowback from conservatives in 2016 when then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick famously kneeled during the national anthem in protest against police brutality.