The NFL denied the Chicago Bears’ appeal to receive compensatory draft picks on Friday after the Atlanta Falcons hired Ian Cunningham as their general manager earlier this year.

The league released a statement affirming its position from the start: that Matt Ryan, the President of Football for the Falcons, is the primary football executive for the franchise.

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“The matter is now closed following the club’s appeal,” a league spokesman said in a press release. “The NFL informed the Bears today they will not receive compensatory picks. The policy is designed to provide picks for the Primary Football Executive position. The League determined Mr. Cunningham did not fill that role with the Falcons as it is defined in League rules.”

The Bears had appealed the league’s decision, and team officials said earlier this week at the owners’ meeting in Arizona that chairman George McCaskey, President/CEO Kevin Warren and general manager Ryan Poles traveled to New York to meet with Commissioner Roger Goodell to state the team’s case.

The Rooney Rule, which encourages teams to develop minority candidates for front office and coaching positions, provides two third-round draft picks to teams that lose a diversity candidate to a front office position deemed to be the “primary football executive” and to teams that lose a minority assistant coach in an instance where he is hired as the head coach.

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Cunnigham served as the assistant general manager under Poles for four seasons and was hired in Atlanta in January after interviewing for the president of football role that went to Ryan, the former Falcons quarterback. Had Cunningham been hired for the president of football job, the Bears would have been awarded the compensatory draft picks.

The Bears appealed that the league’s decision wasn’t in line with the spirit of the Rooney Rule. One issue, however, is if the league bent in this instance, the Falcons would have had two executive jobs — president of football and general manager — that qualified for compensatory draft picks.

The Falcons have been clear that Cunningham is performing all of the tasks any GM does, but Atlanta’s organizational flow chart differs from most clubs. The Falcons have a team president — just like the Bears do with Warren — but also a president of football, the position that Ryan was hired to fill.

Florida Attorney General James Ulhmeier has demanded that the NFL no longer enforce the Rooney Rule as it could potentially apply to the three teams in that state: Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Dolphins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

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Goodell reaffirmed the league’s commitment to the Rooney Rule earlier this week.

“One thing that doesn’t change is our values, and we believe in diversity and its benefit to the National Football League,” Goodell said at the owners’ meeting. “We are well aware of the laws and where the laws are changing and evolving. We think the Rooney Rule is consistent with those and we certainly will engage with the Florida AG or anybody else as we have in the past to talk about our policies.”