‘Rooney Rule’ for women coming to NFL

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will implement a “Rooney Rule” requiring that women be interviewed for executive positions with teams around the league and in his own office, too.

Goodell made the announcement Thursday in his opening remarks at the first NFL Women’s Summit, part of Super Bowl 50.

“We believe in diversity,” Goodell said. “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. …

“You can see that progress is being made 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,” Goodell said.

The Bills hired the NFL’s first full-time female assistant coach last month, Kathryn Smith, as special teams quality control coach.