NFL moves to boost women executives

SAN FRANCISCO — The National Football League will introduce a new rule requiring teams to interview women candidates for executive positions in a bid to boost female participation in the sport, commissioner Roger Goodell confirmed Thursday. Speaking at the NFL’s first “Women’s Summit,” Goodell said the guideline would work on the same principle as the league’s “Rooney Rule,” which requires teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching jobs. “We believe in diversity,” Goodell said. “We believe we’re better as an organization when we have good people at the table.” Goodell said the NFL was making great strides at opening up jobs for women at all levels, citing the example of female game official Sarah Thomas and Jen Welter, the first woman to be hired to an NFL team’s coaching staff. The next step would be to try and increase the numbers of women in management positions, Goodell said. The summit was held in San Francisco on the sidelines of Super Bowl 50, which takes place Sunday. A few NFL teams have already moved to hire women in management positions. The Miami Dolphins has a female executive vice president in Dawn Aponte and Amy Trask was chief executive of the Oakland Raiders for 16 years between 1997 and 2013 following her appointment by late former owner Al Davis. “I think this should be the Al Davis rule,” Trask wrote on Twitter Thursday following Goodell’s announcement. “Hope my reasoning is clear.” — AFP