Roger Goodell expected to face tough questions over alleged NFL hiring discrimination at annual news conference

By Travis Caldwell, CNN

Updated 1124 GMT (1924 HKT) February 9, 2022

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(CNN)NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is expected to face questions at a news conference Wednesday afternoon over what the league is doing toensure head coaching opportunities for Black and minority candidates.

The briefing follows a federal class-action lawsuit filed last week by former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores, who is suing the league along with three NFL franchises for alleged racial discrimination.Flores and other critics of the NFL are calling into question the effectiveness of the Rooney Rule, which was adopted in 2003 and at the time mandated teams conduct at least one head coaching interview with a minority candidate. No one expected Brian Flores to disrupt the NFL like this. But that's exactly what he didGoodell, who has headed the NFL since 2006, regularly participates in his «State of the League» address leading up to the Super Bowl, but Wednesday will not be the first time he has had to speak on team hiring practices. At last year's news conference preceding Super Bowl LV, Goodell noted minority coaches were selected for two of the seven available head coaching jobs and said it «wasn't what we expected, and it's not what we expect going forward.»Read MoreThe league — which had just finished a tumultuous 2020 season amid the Covid-19 pandemic — pointed to three franchises hiring Black general managers as well as improved diversity among coordinator positions, according to NFL.com. Yet Goodell said, «We're not satisfied, and we feel like we can do better and we're going to.» One year earlier, Goodell again expressed concerns over a lack of