Raiders: NFL says Oakland complied with Rooney Rule.

The NFL on Friday said it found the Raiders had complied with the Rooney Rule in the hiring of head coach Jon Gruden.

The Fritz Pollard Alliance had asked the league to investigate whether the Raiders violated the rule, which requires teams with a head-coaching vacancy to interview at least one minority candidate. An NFL spokesman released the league’s findings in an email statement:

“The NFL confirmed today that its review of the hiring of Oakland Raiders head coach Jon Gruden complied with the Rooney Rule and that the club conducted bona fide interviews with minority candidates as part of its search process,” the statement read.

The league wrote teams “must consider at least one minority candidate” for any head coaching opening “before extending an offer to any coach.”

The Fritz Pollard Alliance, a group advocating diversity in NFL head-coach and frontoffice jobs, disputed the league’s findings in a statement Friday afternoon:

“We strongly disagree with the NFL’s conclusion that the Raiders did not violate the Rooney Rule. We believe the facts overwhelmingly point in the other direction. In his enthusiasm to hire Jon Gruden, Raiders’ owner Mark Davis failed to fulfill his obligation under the Rule and should step forward and acknowledge he violated the Rule.”

The group also wrote that the NFL “made the wrong call in refusing to penalize Mark Davis in this instance. Davis crossed the line, and we are disappointed in the League’s decision.”

A Raiders spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Last week, Davis said he met with Gruden on Christmas Eve and came away “pretty confident” that Gruden — then still with ESPN — would return to coach the Raiders.

The team fired head coach Jack Del Rio on Dec. 31 and announced Gruden’s hire on Jan. 6.

General manager Reggie McKenzie said the Raiders had interviewed two minority candidates — former tight ends coach Bobby Johnson and USC offensive coordinator Tee Martin — during the process.

The Raiders avoided what likely would have been a hefty fine. In 2003 then-Commissioner Paul Tagliabue fined thenLions president Matt Millen $200,000 for failing to meet the Rooney Rule, which was established that year.

The Fritz Pollard Alliance said that it has “called for meetings with the League to ensure that a process like this never happens again.”