PHOENIX (AP) — First-year Atlanta Falcons general manager Ian Cunningham said he’ll continue to push for more diversity in the NFL’s leadership positions, even after Florida’s attorney general wrote that the league’s minority hiring guidelines violate Florida state law.
Attorney General James Uthmeier sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell saying the league’s 23-year-old Rooney Rule amounts to “blatant race and sex discrimination.”
“Just from my position, especially being a Black man, there’s still work to be done,” Cunningham told The Associated Press on Monday at the NFL’s league meetings. “Now that I’m in this position and have this platform, I’m going to be intentional about what we do from a grassroots effort to a director level.
“I do think it’s important to give people of all races and sexes a chance to be in a position to further their career.”
The Rooney Rule requires teams to interview at least two minority candidates for head coach, general manager and coordinator positions. At least one minority candidate must be interviewed for the quarterbacks coach position.
The 40-year-old Cunningham was hired as the Falcons general manger in January after four seasons as an assistant GM with the Chicago Bears. He’s also spent time in the front office for the Baltimore Ravens and Philadelphia Eagles.
Cunningham said he didn’t have a comment on Uthmeier’s specific concerns, saying he didn’t have all the details.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles — who is one of just three Black head coaches in the league — also said he needed more information before deciding if Uthmeier’s complaint had any merit.
“The political part of it, if he wants it out, and he has reasons why, I got to hear cases and all that,” Bowles said. “If I were the judge sitting behind a bench, I would probably have more info right now what he thinks, but I don’t.”
Uthmeier asked Goodell to confirm by May 1 that the NFL was no longer enforcing the Rooney Rule in Florida, or the league could face civil rights action. There are three NFL teams in Florida — the Buccaneers, Miami Dolphins and Jacksonville Jaguars.
“NFL fans in Florida don’t care what color their coach’s skin is,” the letter said. “They care what colors their coach is wearing — and that those colors are winning on the football field. The Rooney Rule and its offshoots are illegal in Florida.”
The NFL will have only three head coaches and four general managers who are Black next season. There were 10 head coach openings this season and none of them were filled by a Black coach.
Robert Saleh, who is of Lebanese descent, was the only minority to get a job during the most recent head coach hiring cycle when he was hired by Tennessee.
This was just the fifth time since the start of the Rooney Rule in 2003 that no Black head coaches were hired during an offseason coaching cycle. The only other time it happened in a year with more than five changes was 2013, when there were eight openings.
Goodell isn’t scheduled to speak at the NFL’s annual meetings until Tuesday, but said in February that increasing diversity is still one of the league’s goals.
“We need to continue to make progress,” Goodell said. “I believe that and I believe diversity is good for us. … I think we have to become a more diverse league across every platform, including coaching. But we still have more work to do.”
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AP Pro Football Writer Rob Maaddi contributed to this story.
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