Florida AG Uthmeier subpoenas NFL over diversity, inclusion initiatives

Nicolas Villamil, Tampa Bay Times on May 13, 2026

Published in Football

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James Uthmeier, Florida’s attorney general, has intensified his scrutiny of the National Football League’s diversity and inclusion policies by issuing a subpoena.

This escalation comes after Uthmeier penned a letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in March asking the league to stop enforcing the “Rooney Rule,” which requires teams to interview minority candidates for open coaching and front office roles, in Florida.

In a letter Wednesday to Ted Ullyot, the league’s executive vice president and general counsel, Uthmeier thanked the NFL for saying that it no longer requires the consideration of race or sex in the hiring of at least one offensive assistant coach, and for updating its website in response to his initial letter.

But, Uthmeier wrote, it wasn’t enough to quell his concerns.

“All in all, the Rooney Rule and the NFL’s related ‘inclusive hiring’ policies — and the NFL’s representation about those policies — continue to raise significant concerns under Florida law,” he wrote.

In March, Uthmeier asked the league to comply with his request to stop enforcing the Rooney Rule and any similar policies by May 1. He specifically also objected to the NFL’s Coach and Front Office Accelerator Program and the Mackie Development Program, both of which promote diversity.

On Wednesday, Uthmeier took aim at two additional policies: Resolution JC-2A, which rewards teams who develop minority talent that go on to become general managers or head coaches with draft picks; and the aforementioned offensive assistant coach mandate, which the NFL has told Uthmeier it is no longer enforcing.

“Given the NFL’s history of open discrimination, however, we are skeptical that the mandate is no longer in place,” Uthmeier said of the offensive assistant policy. “And like the Rooney Rule, it violates Florida law.”

The Rooney Rule was adopted in 2003 to address the low number of minority head coaches across the league at the time. In 2009, the policy was amended to include executive positions. In 2022, women were added to the minority candidate definition.

Now, NFL teams currently must interview at least two minority candidates for vacant head coach, general manager and coordinator roles.

In March, Uthmeier called the policy “blatant race and sex discrimination,” and said “it is illegal under Florida law,” citing the Florida Civil Rights Act, a 1992 anti-discrimination law.

Uthmeier’s inquiry emerges in the aftermath of a federal and state push against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Last year, President Donald Trump issued a spate of executive orders targeting programs that promote diversity, including an order that threatened to withhold federal funding from local governments that did not terminate such policies and programs. And last summer, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Department of Governmental Efficiency audited cities and counties across Florida in search of “waste, fraud and abuse” with a focus on “DEI-related spending inconsistent with state law.”

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