Florida Attorney General Subpoenas NFL on Diversity Hiring Policies

The National Football League is cooperating with a civil rights investigation by the Florida attorney general’s office, which has issued a subpoena to examine the league’s diversity hiring policies, including the long-standing Rooney Rule. The legal action escalates a dispute that began earlier this year and centers on whether the league’s employment practices violate state law.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sent the subpoena to the NFL on May 13, demanding the league produce extensive internal documents and appear at his office in Tallahassee on June 12. The investigation seeks all diversity reports, coaching census data, and demographic surveys tracking the race and sex of team coaching staffs from 2017 to the present. In a letter to the league in March, Uthmeier threatened potential enforcement actions if the NFL did not suspend the Rooney Rule, which he stated amounts to blatant race and sex discrimination.

The Rooney Rule, established in 2003 and named for late Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, requires NFL teams to interview at least two external minority candidates for open head coach, general manager, and coordinator positions. It also mandates at least one...