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The Rooney Rule, established in 2003^[1], requires National Football League teams to interview minority candidates for a head coaching opportunity. The rule is named for Dan Rooney, the owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the chairman of the league's diversity committee, and is often cited as an example of affirmative action.

Since the Rooney Rule was established, several NFL franchises have hired minority head coaches (including the Steelers themselves, who hired Mike Tomlin before their 2007 season while contending that his hiring did not result from the rule^[2], Rooney himself disputes this^[3]). At the start of the 2006 season, the overall percentage of African American coaches had jumped to 22%, up from 6% prior to the Rooney Rule.^[4] Even so, the policy is still debated and no team has stated whether the Rooney Rule contributed to the hiring of a minority.

The rule does not apply if an assistant coach has language in his contract guaranteeing him the starting job in case of an opening. [1] This was the case when Mike Martz took over as head coach of the St. Louis Rams before the 2000 season. Also, the rule does not apply if the assistant coach taking over the head position is a minority, as was the case with Mike Singletary and the San Francisco 49ers in late 2008.^[5]

In 2003, the NFL fined the Detroit Lions $200,000 for failure to interview minority candidates for the team's vacant head coaching job. After Marty Mornhinweg was fired, the Lions immediately hired former San Francisco 49ers head coach Steve Mariucci to replace him without interviewing any other candidates. The Lions claimed they attempted to interview other candidates but that the minority candidates withdrew from interviews, believing Mariucci's hiring was inevitable.

Recently, several legal scholars have advocated for extending the Rooney Rule to college football, where the number of minority head coaches languishes around 6%.