ATLANTA — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says the league will keep focusing on opportunities to create a deeper pool of minority coaching candidates.
At his State of the League news conference Wednesday, Goodell lauded the NFL’s Rooney Rule, designed 20 years ago to ensure minorities get interview chances when head-coaching opportunities come available.
An Associated Press analysis of coaching staffs for the 2018 season found only four minorities in the stepping-stone positions of offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
Meanwhile, Goodell sidestepped questions of whether he was comfortable with Colin Kaepernick remaining unsigned in the two years since he kneeled during the national anthem to protest social injustice.
He said clubs are in charge of their own personnel decisions and that “is something we take pride in.”
But he did not comment on questions about whether he was OK with the way the league has responded to what many believe is collusion by teams to not sign Kaepernick. He also did not address how the league’s actions would be viewed in history.
