Falcons GM Ian Cunningham said that he will “continue to push for more diversity in the NFL’s leadership positions,” even after Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier wrote that the league’s minority hiring guidelines “violate Florida state law,” according to David Brandt of the AP. Cunningham said Monday at the NFL’s league meetings, “Just from my position, especially being a Black man, there’s still work to be done. 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.” He added, “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.” Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles — who is one of just three Black head coaches in the league — said, “The political part of it, if he wants it out, and he has reasons why, I got to hear cases and all that.” Brandt noted Uthmeier asked Commissioner Roger 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” (AP, 3/30).
WORTH PROTECTING: In Miami, Greg Cote wrote from government to education to the workplace, DEI “is crumbling.” And Uthemeier is now “doing his part now to erase it from the NFL, too, and by extension perhaps from sports in general.” The rule does not force any team to hire anybody, just that the team’s pool of candidates “not be like the WHITES ONLY sign on water coolers in the 1950s.” It “does not prevent token minority interviews disguised as well-meaning and legit.” But the “continuing need for the rule was evident just in the past hiring cycle” when there were 10 head coach openings — the most ever — and zero of the hirings was Black. Cote: “The rule is needed, worth protecting, worth improving, if only because it keeps lit the idea of fairness, the promotion of it as a noble beacon — ideals lost with Uthmeier and other who would turn back time” (MIAMI HERALD, 3/30).