Florida Hit the NFL With a Deadline to Kill the Rooney Rule and Goodell Has Not Called Back

Roger Goodell stood at a podium in Phoenix, invoked "values," and ignored a May 1 deadline that could land the NFL in a Florida state courtroom.

Florida's Attorney General already has the complaint drafted.

The league has not said a word back.

Goodell Invoked His Values While Florida Cited the Florida Civil Rights Act

Florida AG James Uthmeier sent a formal letter to Goodell on March 25 putting the NFL on notice: the Rooney Rule violates Florida's Civil Rights Act, and the league's three Florida franchises – the Dolphins, Buccaneers, and Jaguars – are breaking state law.

Goodell's response at the NFL annual meeting wasn't a legal argument.

It was a feelings statement.

"One thing that doesn't change is our values," Goodell told reporters.

Uthmeier wasn't impressed.

"I don't think this is about values," he told OutKick and Fox News. "I think it's about the law. You know, we are not a racist people. I do not believe the NFL is a racist organization. When you look at the composition of the players and the contracts altogether with staff, you have a majority minority organization. So this notion that they need to kneel down and apologize is wrong. They need to follow the law."

Uthmeier isn't running an op-ed. He's running a civil rights enforcement action – and he has a specific legal theory Goodell has never touched.

NFL DEI Quotas Went Beyond Interviews and Florida Named Every One of Them

Most people think the Rooney Rule is just an interview requirement. It hasn't been that for years.

The current version mandates at least two minority interviews for every head coach, GM, and coordinator vacancy. It requires every team to carry a minority or female offensive coaching assistant on staff. And it hands third-round draft picks to teams whose minority employees get hired away as GMs or head coaches elsewhere – a financial reward tied explicitly to race.

Uthmeier pointed out that Goodell's pushback only addressed the interview piece – and left the rest untouched.

"They didn't even address the other two parts of the rule that do explicitly have racial hiring quotas for some of the other positions," Uthmeier said. "They didn't address the awarding of draft picks if you check some of these DEI boxes. That is a quota."

His argument is direct: "You can't provide advantages in the employment space that you're denying to somebody else. So I mean, if you have a situation where, let's say, you want a black coach, you know who you want. You see the candidate and he's the best. There's no rule that says, well, you still got to go interview two white guys. That, to me, is the example that shows how, even in the interview space, this is unlawful."

This moment didn't arrive without a runway. America First Legal filed a federal civil rights complaint against the NFL with the EEOC in February 2024, arguing the Rooney Rule violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That filing followed the Supreme Court's 2023 Students for Fair Admissions decision, which struck down race-conscious admissions at Harvard and UNC and opened the door to employment challenges across corporate America. Florida walked through that door.

The NFL Quietly Dropped One Race-Based Program and Uthmeier Called It a Start

Art Rooney II – whose father Dan gave the rule its name – told reporters at the annual meeting that "everybody is in favor of the Rooney Rule" and no one was discussing its elimination.

Uthmeier read that as a declaration of war.

"Seems that way," he said of the impending legal fight. "If they've got lawyers that are reading the law the way we are, I'm sure somebody's telling them it might be wise to apply this differently in Florida or possibly carve out some aspects of the rule. But if they choose not to, again, we believe under Florida's civil rights laws that their employment practice is illegal, and we will bring civil action."

The NFL did blink once. The Accelerator Program – which gave minority head coaching and GM candidates exclusive access to meetings with team owners, while barring white candidates entirely – was shut down in 2025. When it returns this spring, white candidates will be allowed in for the first time.

Uthmeier called that progress. He wants the rest of the rule to follow.

Roger Goodell thought a soundbite about values would make a Florida attorney general go away. On May 2, he's going to wake up as the defendant in a Florida state civil rights case – and no press conference will get him out of it.

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Sources:

• Armando Salguero, "NFL Hasn't Responded To Florida Attorney General On Rooney Rule, But He Has Choice Words For Goodell," OutKick, April 9, 2026.
• Staff, "Florida AG Warns NFL's Goodell to Drop Rooney Rule or Face Legal Action," Fox News, March 2026.
• Staff, "NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell Has No Plans to Scrap Rooney Rule, Despite Florida AG Pressure," NFL.com, April 2026.
• Staff, "Roger Goodell Defends Diversity Policy After Florida AG Challenges Rooney Rule," Yahoo Sports, March 2026.
• Staff, "America First Legal Blasts the NFL's Illegal and Racist 'Rooney Rule,' Files Federal Civil Rights Complaint," America First Legal, February 2024.
• Staff, "Rooney Rule," Wikipedia, updated April 2026.