The video posted by Florida attorney general James Uthmeier on Wednesday has been supplemented with formal correspondence.
Via Andrew Atterbury of Politico, Uthmeier sent a letter to Commissioner Roger Goodell demanding that the Rooney Rule no longer be applied to NFL teams in Florida.
In the letter, copies of which were sent to the owners of the Dolphins, Jaguars, and Buccaneers, Uthmeier asks for confirmation by May 1 “that the NFL will no longer enforce the Rooney Rule or any variation or extension thereof — which requires consideration of race, sex, or any other prohibited classification — on teams in Florida.” Uthmeier adds that "[f]ailure to provide such confirmation may result in a civil rights enforcement action.”
From the letter: “The NFL’s own Executive Vice President of NFL Operations has acknowledged that the NFL should create ‘a workplace culture that doesn’t require mandates to interview people of color and minorities.’ If that is so, then stop discriminating based on race. Stop discriminating based on sex. Interview, hire, and train based on merit. If merit-based employment should exist anywhere (and it should exist everywhere), it is in the NFL. NFL fans in Florida don’t care what color their coach’s skin is. They care what colors their coach is wearing — and that those colors are winning on the football field.”
Of course, the full quote from Troy Vincent reflects his stated belief that a “double standard” exists regarding white and minority coaches. The Rooney Rule was created 23 years ago amid decades of hiring practices supporting the conclusion that the head-coach hiring practices had been heavily skewed toward white candidates. The league acted when it did in order to stave off a threat of litigation from Cyrus Mehri and the late Johnnie Cochran.
Uthmeier’s letter ignores the fact that litigation has been pending, for more than four years, regarding the firing of Brian Flores by the Dolphins.
Provisions like the Rooney Rule are aimed at rectifying decades of systemic discrimination. It’s about ensuring that candidates will get a full and fair opportunity to prove their merit, which often isn’t measured by objective metrics but by subjective factors that are characterized at times by terms like “comfort,” “fit,” and “feel.”
NFL franchises over the years have been owned almost exclusively by white men. Consciously or not, they have gravitated toward white coaches in a way that pales in comparison to the constitution of NFL rosters.
For the players, it’s much easier to display merit. The best players, as evidenced by their skills and abilities demonstrated during practices and games, earn and keep jobs. It’s much more difficult to determine merit when the supply of capable head coaches far outnumbers the 32 positions that are available, and when they all have the basic ability to perform the basic physical requirements of the job.
The league has said nothing to date about Uthmeier’s crusade against the Rooney Rule; the NFL has not responded to two separate emails from PFT seeking comment.
With the league’s owners soon to be arriving in Arizona for the annual meeting, where many of them will be speaking to reporters (and where Goodell will eventually conduct a press conference), it’s inevitable that someone will be saying something about the NFL’s position in response to Florida’s attack on the Rooney Rule.
The Bills will be back on top in the AFC East this year, if the betting odds are to be believed.
Buffalo is a -145 favorite to win the AFC East. That makes the Bills the heaviest favorites to win a division of any NFL team.
New England is next at +150, while the other two teams in the division are long shots: The Jets are at +1800 and the Dolphins at +2800.
The Patriots engineered a major turnaround under first-year coach Mike Vrabel and young quarterback Drake Maye last season, winning the AFC East and then winning the AFC Championship. They look like a team that could be in contention for years to come.
But the Bills had won the AFC East five years in a row prior to last year, and the odds suggest that with Josh Allen playing in first-year head coach Joe Brady’s offense, they’ll get back on top.
Florida is taking aim at the Rooney Rule, calling it discriminatory. The Fritz Pollard Alliance, in a statement issued to PFT, has defended the provision.
“The Rooney Rule doesn’t limit opportunity; it expands it,” Fritz Pollard Alliance interim executive director Michele C. Meyer-Shipp said. “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.”
The Fritz Pollard Alliance, as explained on the group’s website, works “to ensure that hiring, advancement, and decision-making processes for career opportunities both on and off the field are open, fair, and inclusive, so that the leadership of the game reflects the excellence, talent, and diversity of the sport itself.”
The NFL has not responded to an inquiry from PFT regarding the Wednesday afternoon comments from Florida attorney general James Uthmeier, who has demanded that the NFL suspend the Rooney Rule or face possible enforcement action.
The Rooney Rule is named for late Steelers owner Dan Rooney; the Steelers had no comment on Wednesday evening regarding Uthmeier’s demand that the Rooney Rule be suspended.
Last month, former NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith explained in a visit to PFT Live at the Super Bowl that accountability when it comes to the league’s hiring practices could come from the attorneys general of one or more states in which the NFL does business.
That has happened, but not in the way that Smith would have envisioned.
In a video posted Wednesday on Twitter, Florida attorney general James Uthmeier demanded that the NFL suspend the Rooney Rule.
“Next week, the NFL’s annual league meeting begins in Phoenix, Arizona,” Uthmeier said. “And the NFL draft is only a month away. Ahead of the annual meeting, my office is sending a letter to the NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell regarding the league’s hiring practices. Specifically, the use of the so-called Rooney Rule, which requires NFL teams to interview candidates based on race.
“The NFL’s use of the Rooney Rule violates Florida law by requiring race-based considerations in hiring. 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. 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. NFL teams and their fans don’t care about the race of the coaching staff. They want a merit-based system that gives their team the best chance to win.”
Florida hosts three NFL teams: The Dolphins, Buccaneers, and Jaguars.
The move comes at a time when the NFL has been tiptoeing around the federal government’s assault against diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Recently, the league expanded its Accelerator program to include non-minority candidates, arguing that it was not influenced by the current political climate.
The easy reaction to DEI efforts is to argue that all decisions should be based on merit. The NFL’s traditional hiring practices suggest otherwise; NFL executive V.P. of football operations Troy Vincent’s admissions regarding the existence of a “double standard” were featured in the pending lawsuit filed by former Dolphins coach Brian Flores against the Dolphins, the league, and multiple teams.
It remains to be seen whether Uthmeier follows through with his threat, if the NFL doesn’t suspend the Rooney Rule. Coincidentally, or not, Florida took no action after Flores claimed that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered to pay Flores $100,000 for each game Flores lost in 2019.
The Dolphins are adding some veteran depth to their defense.
Miami has agreed to a one-year deal with linebacker/safety Ronnie Harrison, via ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Harrison, 28, spent last season with the Falcons. He appeared in 10 games with four starts, registering 28 total tackles with two passes defensed and 2.0 sacks.
A Jaguars third-round pick in the 2018 draft, Harrison has appeared in 94 career games with 52 starts for Jacksonville, Cleveland, Indianapolis, and Atlanta. He’s tallied seven interceptions, 27 passes defensed, and 8.5 sacks.
