The NFL believes it has a problem with having too few minority coaches among its ranks. So, they’ve decided to solve this problem by ordering each team to hire a “diverse person” to their offensive coaching staff.
The league informed teams of the new requirement in a memo sent Monday afternoon.
“All NFL teams will be required to have a “diverse person (female or a member of an ethnic or racial minority)” on staff as an offensive assistant in 2022,” Dallas Morning News reporter Michael Gehlken wrote. “This position will be funded, in part, by a stipend from league office. Rule designed to improve diversity of HC pipeline.”
The move comes as former Dolphins head coach Brian Flores pursues a case against the NFL for racism in their hiring practices. Flores brought the suit after he claimed the New York Giants interviewed him with no intention of hiring him as they had already decided to hire former Bills coach Brian Daboll to be the head coach.
The NFL has had the Rooney Rule in place for nearly twenty years. A regulation requiring teams to interview at least two minority candidates for a coaching position and at least one minority candidate for front-office positions. Women are also included under the Rooney Rule.
Up until recently, there were several minority head coaches in the league. However, after a slew of firings at the end of the 2021 season, Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin was the only minority coach left in the league.
With only two minority coaches hired in the latest hiring cycle, the league seems to have shifted from merely requiring interviews to actually mandating hires.