The video posted by Florida attorney general James Uthmeier on Wednesday has been supplemented with formal correspondence.<\/p>\n
Via Andrew Atterbury of Politico, Uthmeier sent a letter<\/a> to Commissioner Roger Goodell demanding that the Rooney Rule no longer be applied to NFL teams in Florida.<\/p>\n In the letter<\/a>, copies of which were sent to the owners of the Dolphins, Jaguars, and Buccaneers, Uthmeier asks for confirmation by May 1 \u201cthat the NFL will no longer enforce the Rooney Rule or any variation or extension thereof \u2014 which requires consideration of race, sex, or any other prohibited classification \u2014 on teams in Florida.\u201d Uthmeier adds that “[f]ailure to provide such confirmation may result in a civil rights enforcement action.\u201d<\/p>\n From the letter: \u201cThe NFL\u2019s own Executive Vice President of NFL Operations has acknowledged that the NFL should create \u2018a workplace culture that doesn\u2019t require mandates to interview people of color and minorities.\u2019 If that is so, then stop discriminating based on race. Stop discriminating based on sex. Interview, hire, and train based on merit. If merit-based employment should exist anywhere (and it should exist everywhere), it is in the NFL. NFL fans in Florida don\u2019t care what color their coach\u2019s skin is. They care what colors their coach is wearing \u2014 and that those colors are winning on the football field.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, the full quote<\/a> from Troy Vincent reflects his stated belief that a \u201cdouble standard<\/a>\u201d exists regarding white and minority coaches. The Rooney Rule was created 23 years ago amid decades of hiring practices supporting the conclusion that the head-coach hiring practices had been heavily skewed toward white candidates. The league acted when it did in order to stave off a threat of litigation from Cyrus Mehri and the late Johnnie Cochran. <\/p>\n Uthmeier\u2019s letter ignores the fact that litigation has been pending, for more than four years, regarding the firing of Brian Flores by the Dolphins.<\/p>\n Provisions like the Rooney Rule are aimed at rectifying decades of systemic discrimination. It\u2019s about ensuring that candidates will get a full and fair opportunity to prove their merit, which often isn\u2019t measured by objective metrics but by subjective factors that are characterized at times by terms like \u201ccomfort,\u201d \u201cfit,\u201d and \u201cfeel.\u201d <\/p>\n NFL franchises over the years have been owned almost exclusively by white men. Consciously or not, they have gravitated toward white coaches in a way that pales in comparison to the constitution of NFL rosters.<\/p>\n For the players, it\u2019s much easier to display merit. The best players, as evidenced by their skills and abilities demonstrated during practices and games, earn and keep jobs. It\u2019s much more difficult to determine merit when the supply of capable head coaches far outnumbers the 32 positions that are available, and when they all have the basic ability to perform the basic physical requirements of the job.<\/p>\n The league has said nothing to date about Uthmeier\u2019s crusade against the Rooney Rule; the NFL has not responded to two separate emails from PFT seeking comment. <\/p>\n With the league\u2019s owners soon to be arriving in Arizona for the annual meeting, where many of them will be speaking to reporters (and where Goodell will eventually conduct a press conference), it\u2019s inevitable that someone will be saying something about the NFL\u2019s position in response to Florida\u2019s attack on the Rooney Rule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The video posted by Florida attorney general James Uthmeier on Wednesday has been supplemented with formal correspondence. 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