BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) – The Rooney Rule that has helped diversify front office and coaching jobs in the NFL has been such a success that the league has expanded it to include interviewing women for all executive positions at the league office.
This weekend, the league conducted a women’s career development symposium where aspiring executives gathered to share ideas, participate in panel discussions and breakout sessions, network and encourage one another to seek advancement.
“It only made sense to extend the rule to include gender diversity for league office executive positions,” said Robert Gulliver, the NFL’s chief human resources officer. “If you think outside the NFL, a lot of major organizations have announced in the last year similar efforts to extend something like the Rooney Rule. Here’s an opportunity for clubs to adopt this as a best practice, and we are excited about the opportunity to have some more thoughtful dialogue with the clubs.”
Among the 41 participants was Hannah Gordon, the 49ers’ general counsel. Gordon, who also has worked for the league office, was impressed by the wide spectrum of sessions at the symposium, citing specifically the balance of academicians coming in to talk about what can be applied at the 32 clubs, and league personnel emphasizing what already is being done.
“I think we can always do more, and if we ever stop looking at how can improve diversity, we are dead in the water,” Gordon said. “When I started at the league office in 2009, Robert Gulliver had been hired around then and I got the sense this was a new focus for the league. And if you look at the way their programming has grown over the last seven years, there’s no question they are looking to lead, and that this is an important issue across the board.