[Senator Clay Davis]

Well the Rooney Rule is expanding away from token interviews to token hires....so progress, I guess???

All 32 NFL teams will hire a minority offensive assistant coach for the 2022 season, part of a series of policy enhancements announced Monday to address the league's ongoing diversity efforts.

The coach can be "a female or a member of an ethnic or racial minority," according to the policy adopted by NFL owners during their annual meeting, and will be paid from a league-wide fund. The coach must work closely with the head coach and the offensive staff, with the goal of increasing minority participation in the pool of offensive coaches that eventually produces the most sought-after candidates for head-coaching positions.

"It's a recognition that at the moment, when you look at stepping stones for a head coach, they are the coordinator positions," said Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney II, the chairman of the NFL Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee. "We clearly have a trend where coaches are coming from the offensive side of the ball in recent years, and we clearly do not have as many minorities in the offensive coordinator [job]."

In addition to the offensive assistant coach mandate, the league also:

• Added women to the language of the Rooney Rule at all levels. It will now read that women and/or people of color can satisfy the requirement to interview two external minorities for top positions, including head coach. Women are not required to be interviewed, but they are now included in the fulfillment process. It is possible that a team could interview two white women for an open head coach position to satisfy the Rooney Rule, and then make a hire without ever interviewing a person of color.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...-include-women