{"id":269853,"date":"2026-05-13T19:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T19:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/269853\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T19:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T19:50:11","slug":"nfls-rooney-rule-targeted-in-florida-dei-crackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/269853\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL\u2019s \u2018Rooney Rule\u2019 Targeted In Florida DEI Crackdown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Topline<\/p>\n<p>Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier issued a subpoena to the National Football League on Wednesday targeting the league\u2019s decades-old \u201cRooney Rule,\u201d suggesting it violates Florida law by promoting racial or gender diversity in hiring coaches. <\/p>\n<p>Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier alleged the NFL&#8217;s &#8220;Rooney Rule&#8221; violates state law. (Photo by Richard Heathcote\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Getty ImagesKey Facts<\/p>\n<p>Uthmeier said in a letter to the NFL, which he <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AGJamesUthmeier\/status\/2054608577361301632\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"color-link\" title=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AGJamesUthmeier\/status\/2054608577361301632\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/x.com\/AGJamesUthmeier\/status\/2054608577361301632\" aria-label=\"posted\">posted<\/a> on X on Wednesday, the NFL\u2019s \u201cinclusive hiring\u201d policies \u201craise significant concerns under Florida law,\u201d further accusing the league of a \u201chistory of open discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Uthmeier cited the NFL\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/operations.nfl.com\/inside-football-ops\/inclusion\/the-rooney-rule\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"color-link\" title=\"https:\/\/operations.nfl.com\/inside-football-ops\/inclusion\/the-rooney-rule\/\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/operations.nfl.com\/inside-football-ops\/inclusion\/the-rooney-rule\/\" aria-label=\"Rooney Rule\">Rooney Rule<\/a>,\u201d which was implemented in 2003 and requires teams to interview at least two people of color or women for head coach and general manager positions, and to interview at least one person of color or woman for quarterback coach and senior executive positions.<\/p>\n<p>The attorney general\u2019s letter follows a March <a href=\"https:\/\/www.myfloridalegal.com\/sites\/default\/files\/rooney-rule_signed.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"color-link\" title=\"https:\/\/www.myfloridalegal.com\/sites\/default\/files\/rooney-rule_signed.pdf\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/www.myfloridalegal.com\/sites\/default\/files\/rooney-rule_signed.pdf\" aria-label=\"letter\">letter<\/a> he wrote to the NFL demanding the league drop the rule by May 1, which it refused to do.<\/p>\n<p>Following the March letter, NFL commissioner <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/nfl-meetings-replacement-referees-1adc6cddb5a173e0b7d76559ae284df9\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"color-link\" title=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/nfl-meetings-replacement-referees-1adc6cddb5a173e0b7d76559ae284df9\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/nfl-meetings-replacement-referees-1adc6cddb5a173e0b7d76559ae284df9\" aria-label=\"Roger Goodell\">Roger Goodell<\/a> said the league is \u201cwell aware of the laws\u201d and believes the \u201cRooney Rule is consistent with those,\u201d adding the rule has \u201cbeen around a long time\u201d and will continue to evolve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topline Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier issued a subpoena to the National Football League on Wednesday targeting the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4151,18674,28,30,29,22969,119,94733,7910],"class_list":["post-269853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-dei","tag-diversity","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-hiring","tag-nfl","tag-rooney-rule","tag-uthmeier"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}