NFL cooperates – NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says the league is cooperating with Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office after receiving a subpoena that orders the NFL to appear in Tallahassee on June 12 and hand over extensive records on diversity and coaching demog
On the eve of a new legal deadline in Tallahassee, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell framed the league’s response in one sentence: the NFL is cooperating.
The Florida Attorney General’s office issued a subpoena ordering the league to appear at the attorney general’s office in Tallahassee. Florida. on June 12. The order demands extensive documents. including “all diversity reports. coaching census data. or demographic surveys that reflect the race and sex of coaching staffs of the teams from 2017 to the present.”.
The subpoena also targets programs being reviewed by the attorney general’s office, including the accelerator program. The NFL created the accelerator program in 2022 as an extension of the Rooney Rule, aiming to increase diversity among coaches and front office executives.
Under the program as the league describes it, participants get opportunities to connect with owners and team executives and attend informative sessions designed to equip them for future interviews.
Those details were brought back into focus this week after the NFL held its revamped accelerator program on Monday and Tuesday in Orlando. The league had paused the program last May. This version now includes nonminority participants, and nearly half of this year’s group were white men.
Goodell spoke in the tone of someone defending the purpose of the effort while being forced to answer questions about who gets counted and how. “There are a lot of candidates up there that are diverse. that are getting the opportunity to improve themselves and to get exposure. to get an opportunity. ” he said. “So. the people that are up there are the best of the best and they are a very diverse group. but they are the best of the best. And what we’re trying to do here is to make them even better and to give them opportunities. And that’s what I heard is that one, they appreciate the opportunity; two, it was helpful in that.”.
Between the subpoena’s demand for detailed demographic materials going back to 2017 and the league’s current accelerator framework—paused last May. revamped in Orlando this week. and expanded to include nonminority participants—the league now faces a practical test: can its internal documentation and reporting stand up to scrutiny when the questions are explicit about race and sex in coaching staffs?.
For the NFL, the next move is set on the calendar. On June 12, it will have to show up in Tallahassee with the records the attorney general’s office is seeking—diversity reports, coaching census data, and demographic surveys covering 2017 through the present.
Roger Goodell NFL Florida AG Tallahassee subpoena Ashley Moody diversity reports coaching census data demographic surveys Rooney Rule accelerator program Orlando
So they’re “cooperating” 🙄
The fact they need a subpoena for this is crazy. Like can’t they just show the reports? Also “diversity and coaching demographic” sounds way too broad, who even counts all that stuff.
Wait I thought the Rooney Rule already fixed this? If they’re including nonminority participants now, doesn’t that kinda prove they’re not serious? Or am I mixing it up with something else.
Goodell says “cooperating” but you know it’s gonna be a giant file dump and legal games. “Coaching census data” makes it sound like they’re tracking people like it’s a roster for the DMV. And Florida AG subpoenaing this on June 12… so it’s all politics right? I can’t even tell what they’re mad about, the accelerator program or the counting.