Nearly 20 years after adopting the Rooney Rule, NFL's racial diversity effort is not what 'my father intended it to be'

ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHEx-NFL coach speaks out about 'humiliating' Bill Belichick text 02:57

By Ray Sanchez, CNN

Updated 2058 GMT (0458 HKT) February 3, 2022

(CNN)In Brian Flores' discrimination lawsuit against the NFL, the fired Miami Dolphins coach spoke of the humiliation of being subjected to «a sham interview» appearing to give a Black candidate a legitimate chance at a head coaching job.

The son of the late Dan Rooney, the longtime Steelers chairman who championed a rule requiring teams to interview minority coaching and general manager candidates, said suchhumiliation moved his late father to seek change. The regulation, adopted in 2003, is known as the Rooney Rule.«Tony Dungy, who was the youngest and first African American defensive coordinator with the Steelers,» in the 1980s, «then wouldn't get job interviews or he wouldn't get picked,» said Jim Rooney, who wrote a book about his father's legacy. Former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores sues NFL and 3 NFL teams alleging racial discrimination«My father said many times he knew Tony was better than a lot of the people that ended up getting those (head coaching) jobs.»Read MoreDungy would became the first African-American football coach to lift the Lombardi Trophy — nearly two decades after his stint with Pittsburgh ended — and one of the most successful in history.Today, only one of 27 head coaches employed in the NFL is Black, with five teams without a head coach, in a league where roughly 70% of the players are Black. That lone coach is the Steelers' Mike Tomlin, who won the Super Bowl in 2009. There are two other non-Black minority coaches — one of Puerto Rican and Mexican descent and one of Lebanese descent.The NFL instituted the Rooney Rule in an effort