Florida AG Threatens NFL Over Rooney Rule, Calls Policy Illegal

Florida officials are intensifying their challenge to diversity hiring programs, warning the NFL that the Rooney Rule — a league policy requiring clubs to interview diverse candidates for key leadership jobs — violates the Florida Civil Rights Act and could trigger enforcement action against teams operating in the state.

In a March 25 letter to Commissioner Roger Goodell, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said the Rooney Rule and related NFL diversity initiatives are "illegal in Florida" and demanded that the league confirm by May 1, 2026, that it will stop enforcing any policy that requires consideration of race, sex or another protected classification for teams in Florida, warning that failure to do so "may result in a civil rights enforcement action."

"NFL teams and their fans don't care about the race of the coaching staff," Uthmeier said Wednesday in a social media post. "They want a merit-based system that gives their team the best chance to win."

The NFL says the Rooney Rule is meant to expand opportunity rather than dictate outcomes, and on its football operations site the league says the policy is intended to "foster and provide opportunity to diverse leadership throughout the NFL."

The rule also aims to increase the number of minority candidates hired for head coach, general manager, and executive jobs, with current rules requiring at least two minority candidates for vacant head coach, general manager and coordinator positions and one minority candidate for quarterbacks coach and certain senior executive roles.

Uthmeier argued in his letter that those requirements "require precisely what Florida law forbids" because they "limit, segregate, and classify applicants for certain employment and training opportunities because of race and sex."

He also took aim at other league programs, including incentives that award compensatory third-round draft picks to clubs that develop minority coaches or executives hired away by other teams, as well as programs designed to strengthen the pipeline of diverse candidates.

In a statement on social media, Uthmeier said, "Professional sports are a visible example of a merit-based system, but through the Rooney Rule, the NFL requires its teams to use race-based hiring practices. We are putting Commissioner Roger Goodell on notice: the Rooney Rule violates Florida law, and it must stop."

The confrontation broadens Florida's campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion programs under Republican leadership and pushes that fight beyond universities and government bodies into professional sports, with the attorney general's office announcing the warning and posting both the release and the four-page letter on the state's official website Wednesday.

The dispute also comes at a sensitive moment for the NFL, as Goodell said in February the league would reevaluate the Rooney Rule after this offseason's hiring cycle ended with only one minority candidate filling one of 10 head coaching openings. Three Black head coaches are set to enter the 2026 season, and the policy continues to face scrutiny from critics who say some interviews have become procedural exercises rather than meaningful opportunities.

That criticism has been sharpened by Brian Flores' discrimination lawsuit against the NFL and several clubs, in which he alleged sham interviews and broader racial bias in league hiring.

A federal judge in New York ruled in February that Flores' claims can proceed in open court rather than through the NFL's arbitration process, keeping the issue of hiring fairness squarely in public view as Florida raises a direct legal threat of its own.

Uthmeier's letter was also sent to owners of Florida's three NFL franchises, including Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, Buccaneers co-chair Bryan Glazer and Jaguars owner Shad Khan, according to published reports. The NFL had not responded as of Thursday, leaving unanswered whether the league will defend one of its best-known diversity measures or alter its rules before Florida's May 1 deadline.