Florida AG Issues Subpoena to NFL Over Rooney Rule Hiring Practices

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier issued a formal subpoena to the NFL on Wednesday, demanding nine years of coaching demographic records as his office investigates whether the league's Rooney Rule and related diversity hiring programs violate Florida civil rights law.

The subpoena, sent alongside a letter to NFL executive vice president and attorney Ted Ullyot, commands league representatives to appear at the attorney general's office in Tallahassee on June 12. It requires the NFL to produce "all diversity reports, coaching census data, or demographic surveys that reflect the race and sex of coaching staffs of the teams from 2017 to the present."

For Treasure Coast residents in Martin, St. Lucie, and Indian River counties who follow the NFL — including fans of Florida's two franchises, the Miami Dolphins and Jacksonville Jaguars — the investigation signals that Florida's legal environment around workplace diversity programs is shifting in ways that could reverberate across professional sports and major employers statewide.

Uthmeier first threatened enforcement action against the league in March, calling the Rooney Rule — now in its 23rd year — "blatant race and sex discrimination." The subpoena expands the probe beyond that rule to include several other NFL diversity initiatives: a since-discontinued mandate requiring teams to hire a minority offensive assistant, the diversity accelerator program, the Mackie development program for college officials, and a resolution awarding draft picks to teams whose minority assistant coaches or executives are hired as head coaches or general managers elsewhere.

"All in all, the Rooney Rule and the NFL's related 'inclusive hiring' policies — and the NFL's representations about these policies — continue to raise significant concerns under Florida law," Uthmeier wrote in his letter to Ullyot.

The NFL did not comment Wednesday on the subpoena. In a May 1 letter to Uthmeier, however, the league defended the policy: "The Rooney Rule does not impose any hiring quotas or mandates, and it does not license clubs to consider race or sex in making hiring decisions. Hiring decisions for NFL teams are made by the individual clubs — not the League — and those decisions are based on merit."

The league updated its website language after Uthmeier's March letter, removing language stating the rule aimed to "increase the number of minorities hired." Uthmeier said those revisions raised further questions rather than resolving them. "We appreciate how quickly the NFL changed its website in response to our letter," Uthmeier said, "but their response raises more questions about the Rooney Rule, and we look forward to their cooperation."

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, speaking at league meetings in Phoenix in March, acknowledged the shifting political climate but stood behind the policy. "The Rooney Rule has been around a long time," Goodell said. "We've evolved it, changed it. We'll continue to do that."

The NFL's front office and coach accelerator program — paused in 2025 and rescheduled — is set to be held next week in Orlando. The program, created in 2022 as a Rooney Rule extension, will now include nonminority participants.

The June 12 Tallahassee hearing date is the next confirmed milestone in the investigation.

This article was generated with AI assistance using publicly available information. It was reviewed and approved by a human editor before publication. TC Sentinel uses AI writing tools in accordance with FTC guidelines.