Compensation Discrimination in the National Football League

INTRODUCTION The study of racial discrimination in professional sports has been an actively studied topic for decades, though much of this work has been done in sports other than the National Football League (NFL). However, the NFL itself has become highly conscious of discrimination in both hiring and compensation by race since the early 2000's. The NFL created a diversity committee in October of 2002 expressly to hunt for discriminatory practices and offer recommendations to reduce racial discrimination of all types in the league. Recommendations from the diversity committee included training and development programs aimed expressly at minorities. For instance, one recommendation, the so-called 'Rooney Rule' named after the chair of the committee Dan Rooney, ensures that at least one minority coach must be considered for every high level coaching position that opens in the league. The opportunity to discriminate against either coaches or players, however, cannot be ful...