{"id":572386,"date":"2026-03-31T07:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/572386\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T07:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:02:09","slug":"ian-cunningham-on-diversity-in-hiring-theres-still-work-to-be-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/572386\/","title":{"rendered":"Ian Cunningham on diversity in hiring: “There’s still work to be done”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NFL is struggling to balance the P.R. and legal realities of diversity in key positions with a potential political assault from those who regard the three-letter \u201cDEI\u2019 acronym as a four-letter word. Through it all, the results speak for themselves.<\/p>\n

Exhibit A? The 2026 photo of the NFL\u2019s head coaches<\/a>. Exhibit B? The 2026 photo of the NFL\u2019s General Managers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Falcons G.M. Ian Cunningham, whose promotion from assistant G.M. in Chicago somehow didn\u2019t result in the Bears receiving a pair of third-round compensatory picks, addressed the situation on Monday, in comments to David Brandt of the Associated Press.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust from my position, especially being a Black man, there\u2019s still work to be done<\/a>,\u201d Cunningham told Brandt. \u201cNow that I\u2019m in this position and have this platform, I\u2019m going to be intentional about what we do from a grassroots effort to a director level. . . . I do think it\u2019s important to give people of all races and sexes a chance to be in a position to further their career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cunningham\u2019s comments come only days after Florida took aim at the Rooney Rule as discriminatory against white men, and in the aftermath of Steelers owner Art Rooney II acknowledging that \u201cthe environment has changed.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

The environment has changed, at the national level and in plenty of states. The law has not. And the NFL\u2019s historical performance as it relates to the hiring of coaches and General Managers \u2014 coupled with the league\u2019s decision more than 20 years ago to make interviews of minority candidates for the most coveted positions mandatory \u2014 shows that the longstanding legal standard has not been met. <\/p>\n

The problem is that there has been no real accountability. And the irony is that the first governmental effort to enforce the law comes from the perspective of the demographic that has benefited from the league\u2019s traditional hiring practices.<\/p>\n

The league undoubtedly hopes the Florida problem will go away. That the demand made by Florida attorney general James Uthmeier to abandon the Rooney Rule as to the Dolphins, Jaguars, and Buccaneers is more performative than substantive.<\/p>\n

Whatever Uthmeier\u2019s motivations and intentions, the NFL should do the right thing. Don\u2019t run. Don\u2019t hide. Stand up and say, in a clear, loud voice, \u201cBring it on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Would that be good for business? Probably not. But doing the right thing isn\u2019t always good for business. The truest test of an organization\u2019s true character is whether it will do the right thing when it could be bad for business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NFL is struggling to balance the P.R. and legal realities of diversity in key positions with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":["post-572386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}