The NFL is working with Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier following a subpoena issued to the league on May 13. The attorney general’s office is investigating whether the NFL’s employment policies, including the long-standing Rooney Rule, violate civil rights laws.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell addressed the investigation on Tuesday during league meetings in Orlando, Florida.
“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. “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.”
The investigation follows a letter sent by Uthmeier to Goodell in March. In the letter, Uthmeier threatened potential enforcement actions if the league did not suspend the 23-year-old Rooney Rule. He stated that the policy amounts to “blatant race and sex discrimination.”
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The Rooney Rule requires NFL teams to interview at least two external minority candidates for open head coach, general manager, and coordinator roles. It also requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate for quarterback coach positions.
The legal order requires the NFL to appear at the attorney general’s office in Tallahassee on June 12. The state is demanding a large number of internal documents, including all diversity reports, coaching census data, and demographic surveys tracking the race and sex of team coaching staffs from 2017 to the present.
Florida officials are also reviewing the NFL’s accelerator program. Created in 2022 to boost diversity among coaches and front-office executives, the program connects participants with team owners and executives while offering career development sessions.
The league held a modified version of the accelerator program on Monday and Tuesday in Orlando, after pausing the program last May. The updated format now includes nonminority participants, and nearly half of this year’s attendees were white men.
“There are a lot of candidates up there that are diverse, that are getting the opportunity to improve themselves and to get exposure, to get an opportunity,” Goodell said regarding the program. “So, the people that are up there are the best of the best and they are a very diverse group, but they are the best of the best. And what we’re trying to do here is to make them even better and to give them opportunities. And that’s what I heard is that one, they appreciate the opportunity; two, it was helpful in that.”
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