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Xuan Thai
Two original founders of the NFL Rooney rule told ESPN that they agree with Commissioner Roger Goodell that the efforts of the league in diversity are paying fruit, but they say there is more work to do. One noticed a continuous gap in a key recruitment group of chief coaches: offensive coordinators.
A recent increase in challenges for diversity efforts in business and the government has added questions about whether the NFL could move away from the rule, which requires a more assertive action to create opportunities for progress for minorities and women coaches and executives .
In his press conference prior to the bowl this week in New Orleans, Goodell said the league remained committed to Rooney’s rule, not because it is a “trend” but because it is “the right thing” to promote diversity.
“I think we have shown ourselves to improve NFL,” he told reporters.
Even so, the League must continue trying to do better, according to Cyrus Mehri and John Wooten, whose work led to the implementation of the Rooney Rule in 2003. Mehri said that the ranks of the NFL offensive coordinators For chief coach: Continue without diversity.
There are no black offensive coordinators in the NFL. An offensive coordinator, Mike Kafka of the giants, is the port Rican and attended the Program of Accelerators focused on the NFL minority.
“There has been a historical challenge when it comes to black coaches in the position of the offensive coordinator,” Mehri told ESPN. “There has always been a deficit. We are not close to where we could be or should be. And that creates a wind against the representation in the positions of chief coach because that is the main pipe.”
Mehri said: “More than half of chief training work are filled through the position of offensive coordinator.”
“And then perhaps around 30% of the defensive coordinator, perhaps 10% of others such as former coaches or university ranges,” Mehri said. “So that is the key place where NFL is not yet in all cylinders.”
Mehri Cowrote the Roney Rule with civil rights lawyer Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., along with Wooten’s main contributions.
Despite its defects, Rooney’s rule is working, said Wooten, 88, a member of the University Hall of Fame that began as a player in the NFL in 1959. Later it served in the Cowboys staff before to become the first president of the Fritz Pollard alliance, which advocates greater diversity in the NFL.
“When I played at the NFL, we never had a black coach in that room, point. When you look at the game this weekend, look at the men you will see on the site,” Wooten said. “That is what Rooney’s rule has done. I feel we have to continue pressing.”
At the beginning of the 2024 season, the black players composed more than half of the NFL players, but there were seven black coaches, or 22%, Associated Press reported. There were nine minority coaches among the 32 teams, including Robert Saleh of the Jets, which is of Lebanese ancestry, and Dave channels of the Panthers, which is Latin.
An NFL spokesman did not immediately return a request for comments.
According to the NFL Diversity and Inclusion Report, from 2012 to March 2023, 40 of the 77 chief coaches previously had roles of offensive coordinators for at least one season. Comparatively, 24 of the 77 chief coaches hired during that period come from roles of defensive coordinators.
One of the seven chief training vacancies this season has been filled by a minority coach: Aaron Glenn, who was hired by the Jets. His most recent role was the defensive coordinator of Los Leones. Of the other five chief coaching roles, three more recently came from an offensive coordinating role, two were recently chief coaches.
Mehri told ESPN that the preference for recruitment between offensive coordinators is “similar to the bias that existed for decades” with respect to black field marshal when it comes to “think” positions in the NFL. He pointed to this year’s playoffs to underline how the racial representation has changed: three of the four field of conference champions were black, including both QB in the Super Bowl on Sunday. He said that the shortage of minority offensive coordinators is to “retain the NFL.”
“Otherwise, Rooney’s rule has been a huge success,” he said.
From the decision of the Supreme Court of 2023 that ended the affirmative action in the process of admission to the university, the conservative activists have pressed public companies, including the NFL, to end the diversity programs.
Legal America First, which was founded by the main president Trump, Stephen Miller, presented a letter to the Commission for Equal Employment Opportunities in 2024 complaining that the Rooney Rule constituted a “quota” system that “was less opportunities For opportunities in a similar way, well qualified.
Miller is now a deputy director of Trump administration, who has ordered the elimination of all diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the federal government and entities that receive federal funds.
Mehri argues that Rooney’s rule is about creating equal opportunities, not the same results. The NFL has simply added more candidates for the board, did not reduce the candidates available for whites, he said, adding that more white coaches have been interviewed over the years for the best works than black coaches.
The pipeline problem is also based on the hiring practices at the university level, according to Richard Lepchick, who created the annual racial and gender report card in 1988. This year, Marcus Freeman de Notre Dame became the first soccer coach Black to reach the National Championship. game.
“This is 2025, and we have the first black chief coach coach in a championship game,” said Lapchick. “What tells us about our hiring practices? It tells us that we have a long way to go to the university level.”
Changes in the Rooney rule have included a gradual expansion of interview boards to include a minimum number of minority or women candidates. The NFL introduced compensatory draft selections if a minority coach was transferred to another team.
In 2022, the League required that the teams hire an offensive assistant who was a minority or a woman. Critics have claimed that interviews can, sometimes they have been, as if the teams simply check a box, especially if the teams have already identified a superior candidate. A federal demand still pending against the league of former Dolphins coach Brian Flores, and two other black coaches allege hiring discrimination, including simulated interviews.
Regarding the challenge of Miller, Jean Kuei, partner and head of the Working Group and Employment in the Pillsbury law firm, Winthrop, Shaw, Pitman, said that, although some corporations and organizations should be worried, programs like Rooney No They are discriminatory because the hiring result is not determined by the breed.
The rule “increases the board,” Kuei said. If, for example, six candidates are considered, but there are no diverse candidates, the rule says: “You have to add two for certain positions. So now you are only interviewing eight, but you are not taking two of the six that you previously They were going to interview anyway. “
Wooten emphasized that the NFL is on the right path, and that Rooney’s rule is successful. “And that’s why we’re going to continue fighting when we need to fight,” he said. “But we are winning, believe me when I tell you this.”
