The D.C.-based organization that champions diversity and inclusion in the NFL has asked the league to look into whether Washington complied with the revamped Rooney Rule when it made two recent front office hires, ESPN reported late Wednesday night.
According to The Undefeated’s Jason Reid, The Fritz Pollard Alliance has questions surrounding Washington’s addition of executive vice president and chief marketing officer Terry Bateman and senior vice president of media Julie Donaldson, both of whom are white.
The Rooney Rule, which originally required NFL teams to interview at least one minority candidate for head coaching positions, was expanded in May to include minority and/or female candidates for executive positions.
Rod Graves, executive director of The Fritz Pollard Alliance, confirmed the inquiry to Reid.
As of Thursday morning, the Washington NFL franchise had not commented on the inquiry.
The inquiry is the latest chapter in a busy offseason for Washington. The franchise announced Tuesday that Donaldson will be the first woman to be a regular on-air member of an NFL radio broadcast booth. She replaces Larry Michael, who last week was one of three high-ranking team employees who left their jobs in the days before a Washington Post report about sexual harassment by club employees.
A Washington law firm has since been hired by Snyder to investigate allegations of workplace misconduct.
Bateman, who previously served a longtime stint starting in 2006 under Washington owner Dan Snyder, was already advising Snyder and was officially brought back Monday to oversee the team’s “name change and branding process.”
Snyder recently bowed to financial pressure from sponsors and said the franchise would “retire” its old moniker after years of vowing to never drop his team’s dictionary-defined slur of a name that was in place for 87 years.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
