Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
NFL expands Rooney Rule to strengthen diversity in leadership
The Miami Dolphins are one of a few NFL franchises that have taken diversity and inclusion seriously by putting numerous minorities and four women in positions of power throughout the organization the past few years.
New policies approved by the NFL’s owners on Tuesday aims at ensuring that more NFL franchise’s follow the Dolphins’ lead with the Rooney Rule is being expanded to coordinator positions, and a wide range of executive roles.
The Rooney Rule, an Affirmative Action policy that previously required NFL teams to interview ethnic-minority candidates for head coaching and senior football operation jobs, is being drasti
cally expanded.
With Tuesday’s vote, NFL teams are now required to interview at least two external minority candidates for head coach vacancies, at least one minority candidate for any of the three — offense, defense and special teams — coordinator vacancies, and at least one external minority candidate for the senior football operations or general manager position.
And for the first time, the Rooney Rule will also apply to a wide range of executive positions, as each franchise must now include minorities and/or female applicants in the interview processes for senior-level front office positions such as team president, and senior executives in communication, finance, human resources, legal, football operations, sales, marketing, sponsorship, information technology, and security positions.
The NFL office will also adhere to these same requirements.
A proposal that was designed to improve a team’s third-round draft position as an incentive for hiring minorities in positions of power did not passed.
“We believe these new policies demonstrate the NFL Owners’ commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in the NFL,” said Art Rooney II, the Pittsburgh Steelers owner and chairman of the Workplace Diversity Committee. “The development of young coaches and young executives is a key to our future. These steps will assure coaching and football personnel are afforded a fair and equitable opportunity to advance throughout our football operations. We also have taken important steps to ensure that our front offices, which represent our clubs in so many different ways, come to reflect the true diversity of our fans and our country.”
The Rooney Rule was established in 2003 as a reaction to the 2002 firings of successful minority head coaches Tony Dungy in Tampa Bay, and Dennis Green in Minnesota.
At the start of the 2006 season, the overall percentage of African-American coaches had jumped to 22 percent, up from 6 percent prior to the Rooney Rule. But in recent years the policy had become watered down, as teams found ways to skirt around the policy, particularly by interviewing one high ranking minority in their ranks without a genuine intent of hiring them as a head coach or general manager.
Last year eight NFL teams had head coaching vacancies to fill, but only the Dolphins hired a minority, naming Brian Flores, who is black and of Hondurian decent, as the replacement for Adam Gase.
This cycle of head coach openings only delivered one minority hire. But Ron Rivera, who is of Puerto Rican decent, taking over the Washington Redskins kept the number of minority head coaches at four because he was just ended a nine-year run as the Carolina Panthers head coach.
The stifled number of executives rising to positions of power were the reason why the NFL’s Workplace Diversity Committee and Competition Committee pushed for policy changes, which where developed in consultation with the Fritz Pollard Alliance, which advocates for diversity and job equality in the league.
“The NFL is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, which I believe is critical to our continued success,” said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a released statement. “While we have seen positive strides in our coaching ranks over the years aided by the Rooney Rule, we recognize, after the last two seasons, that we can and must do more. The policy changes made today are bold and demonstrate the commitment of our ownership to increase diversity in leadership positions throughout the league.”
The Dolphins have long been a champion for diversity, long before Flores became the franchise’s first non-interim AfricanAmerican head coach in 2019.
Dawn Aponte spent seven seasons with the Dolphins as executive vice president of football administration before moving to the NFL front offices, where she’s the Chief Football Administrative Officer.
Chris Grier spent 20 years rising up the ranks in Miami before becoming the franchise’s first African-American general manager in 2016. He was given final say in all football matters in 2019 when Mike Tannenbaum, the vice president of football operations, was removed from his position at the end of the 2018 season. And Miami also has Marvin Allen, an African-American, serving as the Dolphins’ assistant general manager.
The Dolphins also have three African-Americans (Jason Jenkins, Myles Pistorius and Nat Moore) serving as vice presidents in the organization, and five women (Sam Coghill, stadium operations, Kimberly Rometo, chief information officer, Laura Sandall, marketing, and Jamie Weinstein, premium & membership services) serving as vice presidents on the business side of the organization.
The Dolphins are the NFL’s only franchise with a minority head coach and general manager. Cleveland’s Andrew Berry, who was hired this spring, is the only other minority serving as a general manager.
Pittsburgh Steelers’ Mike Tomlin, Los Angeles Chargers’ Anthony Lynn and Washington’s Rivera are the only other minorities serving as head coaches in the NFL this season.
The new policy also changes the current Anti-Tampering Policy by establishing a system that prohibits a club from denying an assistant coach the opportunity to interview with a new team for a offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, or special teams coordinator position, and a nonhigh-level/non-secondary football executive from interviewing for a assistant general manager position.
In either case, a contract could not be negotiated or signed until after the conclusion of the employer club’s playing season. And it also requires all teams to submit in writing an organizational reporting structure for the coaching staff with job descriptions for any coach who is a coordinator or co-coordinator within that structure.