Florida AG Issues Subpoena to NFL Regarding the Rooney Rule
James Uthmeier sent the subpoena and a letter to NFL executive vice president Ted Ullyot on Wednesday, following up on a March warning that the league could face enforcement actions. The 23-year-old policy requires teams to interview at least two minority candidates for head coach, general manager and coordinator positions.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier issued an investigative subpoena to the NFL regarding the Rooney Rule and sent it along with a letter to NFL executive vice president and attorney Ted Ullyot on Wednesday. Uthmeier had threatened possible enforcement actions against the league in March if it didn’t suspend the 23-year-old rule.
In his first letter that month to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Uthmeier said the rule amounts to blatant race and sex discrimination.
The Rooney Rule requires teams to interview at least two minority candidates for head coach, general manager and coordinator positions. It also requires that at least one minority candidate must be interviewed for the quarterbacks coach position. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell spoke at the league meetings in Phoenix in March.
“The Rooney Rule has been around a long time,” Goodell said then. “We’ve evolved it, changed it. ” The NFL did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. The league updated the terminology on its website regarding the Rooney Rule after receiving Uthmeier's initial warning letter in March.
The updated NFL website states: “The Rooney Rule establishes best practices designed to expand opportunity and strengthen the NFL’s talent pipeline across leadership roles. It is part of a broader effort to develop a deep and sustainable talent pipeline across all levels of the NFL.
” “We appreciate how quickly the NFL changed its website in response to our letter and capitulated on some of their discriminatory hiring quotas,” James Uthmeier said.
