The Rooney Rule was first introduced in 2003 when there was a lack of minorities amongst NFL players. Now, the rule is also being passed down for women too hold executive positions in the NFL.
We know what you’re thinking, “We’re going to give jobs just because of genders?” No, it’s much more than that and you have to look at the bigger picture. It’s much like NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said it is, “It’s about diversity.”
Goodell says NFL will institute a 'Rooney Rule' for women in executive positions. Women must be interviewed for future jobs.
— Christine Brennan (@cbrennansports) February 4, 2016
There was an NFL Women’s Summit and that is where Goodell decided to share this ground-breaking news.
“Last but not least, it’s management, and when I say that, it’s about diversity in our management. We believe in diversity,” Goodell said. “We believe we’re better as an organization when we have good people at the table. We have great people at the table. We’re also seeing it on the field. …
“You can see that progress is being made and our commitment is, we have something called the Rooney Rule, which requires us to make sure when we have an opening that on the team or the league level that we are going to interview a diverse slate of candidates. Well, we’re going to make that commitment and we’re going to formalize that we, as a league, are going to do that for women as well in all of our executive positions. Again, we’re going to keep making progress here and make a difference.”
May we see a woman occupying Goodell’s job in the future? That’ll be interesting to see.