NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced Thursday that the league will institute a Rooney Rule that will require NFL franchise to interview women for executive positions. Goodell spoke at the "Women's Summit" at Super Bowl 50, and was applauded for the progress the league is looking to make.
"We believe in diversity," said Goodell, via NFL Network. "We believe we're better as an organization when we have good people at the table. We have great people at the table... We're also seeing it on the field. Sarah Thomas, Sarah's right here. Sarah was our first NFL female official on the field this year. Sarah, congratulations. And she did a fantastic job and we're very proud of her. We have people breaking into coaching ranks. I don't know if Jen is here, is Jen here? Jen's right next to her. Jen (Welter) is the first coach last year in the NFL. And she set a trend, we now have a second coach of the Buffalo Bills, a female coach (Kathryn Smith)."
The Bills hired the first female to be named to a full-time NFL coaching position, and the league is looking to make strides both on the field and in the front office. "You can see the progress that is being made," said Goodell, via NFL Network. "And our commitment is we have something called the Rooney Rule, which requires us to make sure when we have an opening, that on the team or the league level, that we are going to interview a diverse slate of candidates. Well we're going to make that commitment and we're going to formalize that we, as a league, are going to do that with women as well in all of our executive positions. Again we're going to keep making progress here and make a difference."
The new rule opens the door to women who may not have had an opportunity to interview for an executive position in the past, and allows women to prove through the interview process that they are deserving of the job.
