Goodell: NFL to reevaluate approach after 1 minority coach hired this cycle - ESPN

SAN JOSE, Calif. — One day after the NFL's coaching carousel stopped with 10 head-coaching jobs filled and only one of those taken by a minority candidate, commissioner Roger Goodell said the league will take a closer a look at the Rooney Rule and all that it encompasses to «continue to make progress» on diversity.

«I think we have become a more diverse league across every platform including coaching, but we still have more work to do,» Goodell said. «There's got to be more steps. We're reevaluating everything we're doing, including the accelerator program, including every aspect of our policies in our program to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow rather than yesterday. We need to be looking at that and why did we have those results this year?»

Speaking Monday during his annual week of Super Bowl news conference at the San Jose Convention Center, Goodell fielded five questions either directly or tangentially related to the Rooney Rule, which was adopted in 2003 and requires every team with a head-coaching, coordinator or general manager opening to interview at least two minority candidates before it can make a hire. Teams must also interview at least one minority candidate for the position of quarterbacks coach.

Goodell said Monday that every team was Rooney Rule-compliant in the head-coaching cycle and said he «believes» every team with a head-coach opening «exceeded» the Rooney Rule this year by interviewing more than the requisite two minority candidates.

Still, Tennessee Titans coach Robert Saleh, who is of Lebanese descent, was the only minority candidate to land a top job, and no Black head coaches were hired. It's the fifth time since the Rooney Rule was implemented that no Black head coaches were hired