Civil Rights leaders met with Commissioner Roger Goodell on Monday and called for the NFL to replace the current Rooney Rule.
“However well-intentioned, the effect of the Rooney Rule has been for team decision-makers to regard interviews with candidates of color as an extraneous step, rather than an integral part of the hiring process,” National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial said in a statement, noting that the NFL currently has only one Black head coach, two fewer than when the Rule was established. “The gravity of the situation is long past the crisis point.”
The Rooney Rule is a policy established in 2003 that requires teams to interview candidates of color for head coaching and senior football operation positions.
It has led to controversy over whether teams are interviewing candidates simply to fulfill the requirement or are seriously interested in those they meet.
Rev. Al Sharpton hit on that exact point.
“The Rooney Rule has been proven to be something the owners used to deceptively appear to be seeking real diversity,” Sharpton said. “We must have firm targets and timetables.”
Sharpton said the National Action Network will be approaching states and municipalities to stop public funding and tax incentives to NFL stadiums until these firm commitments on timetables and goals are solid and public.
“NAN also has begun talking to members of Congress about Congressional hearings since public funds are being used to uphold this biased enterprise,” Sharpton said. “Lastly, we will be going to major advertisers telling them they cannot continue to use our dollars in this unacceptable economic arrangement.”
The situation percolated last week when former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York against the NFL and most of its member clubs — specifically, the Dolphins, New York Giants, and Denver Broncos.
Flores is claiming that he and several other potential Black head coaches have been denied opportunities to advance in the NFL due to the league’s racist hiring practices and flagrant violations of the Rooney Rule.