Written by Ken Belson at TheNYTimes.com
In an effort to diversify leadership in the upper ranks of the N.F.L., Commissioner Roger Goodell said on Thursday that the league would now require at least one woman be interviewed for any executive position openings in the league office.
The announcement — in front of a group that included his wife, Jane Skinner Goodell; former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; the tennis champion Billie Jean King and others — came at the N.F.L.’s first Women’s Summit, days before the Super Bowl on Sunday and in the wake of a series of domestic violence cases involving some of its biggest stars that threw the league into crisis last year.
Goodell’s announcement on Thursday is an expansion of the N.F.L.’s so-called Rooney Rule, named after the Pittsburgh Steelers chairman, Dan Rooney, which obligates each of its 32 teams to interview at least one minority candidate for any head coach or general manager opening, though this provision covers only openings at the league’s headquarters and jobs on the executive level.
The N.F.L. already has several women in key positions, including Dawn Hudson, its chief marketing officer; Cynthia Hogan, a chief lobbyist; Anna Isaacson, its vice president for social responsibility; and Lisa Friel, a former prosecutor who runs investigations into player misconduct.
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