Florida attorney general James Uthmeier believes the NFL did not go far enough after the league made subtle changes to the language in the Rooney Rule. Uthmeier — who in March demanded the league suspend the Rooney Rule over “discrimination” concerns — issued an investigative subpoena to the league Wednesday claiming the rule still violates Florida law.
Uthmeier announced the subpoena, and released the full letter he sent to the NFL, in a social-media post Wednesday.
In the letter, Uthmeier said he appreciated how quickly the NFL altered the language of the Rooney Rule, but that the league’s changes invite more questions over the rule and its purpose.
The Rooney Rule, which was adopted by the league in 2023, requires teams to “interview at least one or more diverse candidates before making a new hire.” The policy now applies to a number of roles around the league, including head-coaching jobs, general manager positions and other “football executive jobs,” per the league’s website. Teams are now required to interview two minority candidates for those roles.
In his initial statement to the NFL, Uthmeier claimed the Rooney Rule violated Florida law by “requiring race-based considerations in hiring.” He also threatened “enforcement actions against the league for race-based discrimination.”
In response, the NFL quietly altered some of the language in the rule. One of those changes involved making it clear that the team has the final say in which candidate gets hired. Another removed the phrase “aims to increase the number of minorities hired” to read “expands the pool of candidates required.”
In his letter Wednesday, Uthmeier called out that edited phrase, saying making hiring decisions based on race violates Florida law.
Uthmeier also called out three other NFL policies which seek to hire, train or mentor women or minority candidates. Uthmeier claimed those policies also violated Florida law, which prohibits employers from considering race or sex when making hiring decisions.
At the end of his letter, Uthmeier circled back to the NFL’s editing of the Rooney Rule. Uthmeier claimed that by editing those passages, the NFL engaged in “deceptive and unfair business practices.” By claiming it wanted to promote diversity hiring but then removing that language from the Rooney Rule when challenged, the NFL deceived consumers, per Uthmeier’s letter.
It’s unclear if or how the NFL respond to Uthmeier’s subpoena. When NFL commissioner Roger Goodell spoke about the issue at the league meetings in late March, he said there were no plans to drop the rule, per the Associated Press.
"The Rooney Rule has been around a long time," Goodell said at the time. "We've evolved it, changed it. We'll continue to do that."
