Florida Takes Its Anti-dei Fight To The Nfl

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — The NFL draft may dominate sports headlines this week, but another matter has the league ready to play defense: Florida’s move to pressure the league’s minority hiring practices in an attempt to get its “Rooney Rule” sacked.

State Attorney General James Uthmeier gave NFL officials until May 1 to repeal policies meant to bolster opportunities for minority coaches and top executives in the league, threatening a civil rights lawsuit if they don’t. With time ticking down, it doesn’t appear the NFL has officially responded yet to Florida’s warning, meaning the Rooney Rule will likely remain enforced beyond the deadline.

“I told them that they could get back to me by May 1,” Uthmeier said Tuesday at an event in Tampa. “I don't think it's May 1 yet, so we'll see what they say.”

A civil rights lawsuit, as Uthmeier is threatening, would mount an unprecedented challenge for the NFL, enmeshing the nation’s most popular sports league in a new legal battle that advances Florida’s fight against “woke” policies. The efforts by Uthmeier, who is endorsed by President Donald Trump, align with a White House effort to boost scrutiny of programs they classify as diversity, equity and inclusion, making now a prime time to pursue changes to the Rooney Rule.

The NFL is currently embroiled in a Rooney Rule lawsuit brought by top coordinator and former head coach Brian Flores, who is Black and suing the NFL for alleged racial discrimination, claiming, among other things, that teams are conducting “sham” interviews to comply. But Florida’s move would go a different route by attempting to leverage a state law and spur the NFL into making a major policy change.

Created in 2003 by the NFL’s Workplace Diversity Committee, the Rooney Rule as it exists today requires every team to interview at least two external minority candidates for open head coach, coordinator and general manager jobs. At the same time, the policy rewards teams for developing minority staff by granting them compensatory draft picks if a minority coach or executive is hired away by another franchise. The NFL also requires teams to employ a female or minority coach as an offensive assistant.

Uthmeier claims these policies run afoul of Florida’s longstanding civil rights laws by demanding teams limit, segregate and classify applicants for certain employment and training opportunities because of their race and sex. The attorney general argues the NFL is in the wrong with racial hiring quotas and awarding draft picks “if you check some of these DEI boxes.”

For Florida, targeting the NFL spreads the state’s efforts in fighting diversity, equity and inclusion policies to a national level and a new arena, something Uthmeier hopes will “send a message to other corporations out there that people need to be hired based on merit."

“The endgame, for me, would be to have the rule repealed. And this goes beyond the NFL,” Uthmeier said earlier this month in an interview with conservative sports and culture website OutKick.

NFL officials did not comment for this story and referred to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s recent remarks at the March owners meeting.

“As you know, the Rooney Rule is not a hiring mandate,” Goodell said at the time. “It’s intended to try to help, and it’s been used by industries far beyond football and far beyond the United States to help identify candidates and a diverse set of candidates to bring them better talent and give us an opportunity to hire the best talent, ultimately, and folks make those decisions individually. Those are, I think, principles of how we try to get better — bring in the best talent.”

While the legal pressure is significant, experts are skeptical Florida’s effort will succeed. One Rooney Rule expert contends the hiring rules are “legally sound.”

N. Jeremi Duru, who teaches sports law, civil procedure and employment discrimination at American University’s Washington College of Law, maintains the Rooney Rule abides by federal Title VII law prohibiting employee discrimination, which contains language similar to Florida law. For example, Duru notes that while one policy requires teams to interview at least two people of color for some positions, it doesn’t restrict anyone else from being interviewed.

“I don’t think that this action is likely to be successful on the Florida level, just like I don’t think it’s likely to be successful on the federal level,” said Duru, the author of "Advancing the Ball: Race, Reformation, and the Quest for Equal Coaching Opportunity in the NFL."

Although the Rooney Rule has critics who contend it hasn’t done enough to actually propel Black coaches in the league, the policies have largely avoided legal scrutiny. The only other notable challenge to the crux of the rule came from the America First Legal Foundation, which filed a civil rights complaint in 2024 making similar claims as Florida.

It doesn’t appear the NFL or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ever responded to the America First Legal Foundation, which was founded by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. But the legal group is a fan of what Florida is attempting.

"We welcome Attorney General Uthmeier's efforts to hold the NFL to the rule of law,” the group’s senior counsel Ian Prior said in a statement. “There is no greater example of meritocracy in action than the field of play in the National Football League. There is no reason why the league should abandon those principles in the competition for coaching and front office positions."

The attorney general’s office didn’t answer questions for this story, including on the timing of Florida’s opposition to the Rooney rule. A spokesperson instead referred POLITICO to Uthmeier's interview with OutKick. Uthmeier and America First Legal have aligned in the past, such as when they combined forces in a lawsuit alleging Target “knowingly misled and defrauded investors by concealing the financial risks of its radical LGBTQ activism.”

One sports law attorney said that even though the Rooney Rule has “outlived its usefulness” and is effectively “window dressing,” it doesn’t appear to be violating any laws, as suggested by Florida.

“This is sort of grandstanding, virtue signaling that they’re not going to tolerate anything ‘woke’ or seen as DEI,” said Jim Acho, an attorney with Cummings, McClorey, Davis & Acho, who for more than 25 years has represented retired MLB players and current and retired NFL players in pension, disability, medical benefits and concussion cases.

To some, Florida’s Rooney Rule criticism could give the NFL another chance to stand up for the diversity policies the league has championed for years. Goodell backed the rule in the face of President Donald Trump targeting DEI and did so again at the NFL owners meeting, when he pledged to keep it.

The situation gives the NFL an opportunity to put its “position to the test and send a strong and durable message about its commitment to diversity,” according to Chris Deubert, an attorney specializing in labor and employment, sports, and data privacy.

“A failure to do so would likely prompt at least some backlash from players, fans, and sponsors,” Deubert, senior counsel with Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, wrote in an analysis of Florida’s potential challenge. “If Florida obtains an injunction against the Rooney Rule in the state (which is highly uncertain), the NFL can be proud to have put up a principled fight.”

Goodell, though, indicated the NFL is open to considering changes to the rule, something that could appease Uthmeier. The attorney general suggested, for one, the NFL could make exceptions for Florida when it comes to enforcing the hiring policies, extending a possible off-ramp for the dispute.

“If they've got lawyers that are reading the law the way we are, I'm sure somebody's telling them it might be wise to apply this differently in Florida or possibly carve out some aspects of the rule,” Uthmeier said earlier this month. “But if they choose not to, again, we believe under Florida's civil rights laws that their employment practice is illegal, and we will bring civil action."