TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Attorney General James Uthmeier is calling out the NFL for “discriminatory” hiring practices in a new letter to Commissioner Roger Goodell.
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In this letter, Uthmeier criticized the NFL for its utilization of the “Rooney Rule‚” a decades-old hiring practice named after then-chairman of the league’s Workplace Diversity Committee (now the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee), Dan Rooney.
The rule, created to combat the “historically low number of minorities in head coaching positions,” requires every NFL team to “interview at least two external minority candidates in person for open head coach and GM positions and at least two external minority candidates for a coordinator job.”
These practices, according to Uthmeier, are a form of discrimination.
“These methods of directing the selection and training of certain executives, coaches, and other employees based on skin color and sex is discriminatory and violates Florida law,” Uthmeier wrote in his letter to Goodell.
Uthmeier cites the Florida Civil Rights Act, which he writes “prohibits employers from ‘fail[ing] or refus[ing] to hire any individual;’ ‘limit[ing], segregate[ing], or classify[ing] employees or applicants for employment in any way which would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities;’ and ‘discriminat[ing] against any individual with respect to ... privileges of employment,’ because of the ‘individual’s race, color, religion,’” et cetera.
Uthmeier concluded his letter to the NFL Commissioner by saying that, under Florida law, the Rooney Rule and its offshoots are “illegal” in the state.
“Please confirm no later than May 1, 2026 that the NFL will no longer enforce the Rooney Rule or any variation or extension thereof ... on teams in Florida,” the Attorney General wrote. “Failure to provide such confirmation may result in a civil rights enforcement action.”
The NFL has not yet responded to Uthmeier’s letter or call to action.
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