The NFL will have its first full-time female assistant coach in 2016 and the league is expected to have more female officials on the field in the near future as well.
On Thursday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said that the league is going to expand efforts to get more women into executive positions around the league as well. Speaking at the NFL Women’s Summit, Goodell said that the league will extend the Rooney Rule requirements for interviews with executives to women.
“We have something called the Rooney Rule which requires us to make sure when we have an opening at the team level or the league level that we are going to interview a diverse slate of candidates,” Goodell said. “We are going to make a commitment and we’re going to formalize that we as a league are going to do that for women at all of our executive positions.”
Goodell noted that the league added two women to senior positions over the last year or so and stressed the league’s desire for more “diversity in our management.” The effectiveness of the Rooney Rule at fulfilling the goal of increasing the number of minority coaches and executives has been debated since its adoption and this expansion will likely lead to the same reaction as it gets implemented in the future.