The Dallas Cowboys are set to begin their search for a new head coach after parting ways with Mike McCarthy earlier this week, but it sounds like there is a step that comes before that.
As NFL insider Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports reports, the NFL is forcing team owner Jerry Jones and the rest of the Dallas Cowboys leadership team to take part in “mandatory inclusivity hiring training.”
“Jerry Jones and other members of the Cowboys decision-making group must take mandatory inclusive hiring training before beginning their head-coach search,” Jones said in a post on X, the social media website that was formerly known as Twitter.
For decades, the NFL has been trying to promote diversity in hiring, especially for head coaches.
In 2003, the NFL introduced the Rooney Rule, which requires NFL teams to interview at least one minority candidate for head coaching and senior front-office positions.
It’s worth noting that Jones has owned the Cowboys for more than three decades and hired seven different head coaches during that time. But he has never hired a Black head coach.
The Cowboys do not have an extensive list of head coaching candidates just yet, but Jones has reached out to former Cowboys cornerback and current Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders for a preliminary conversation.
We’ll have to see whether or not Sanders will take part in a formal interview with the team.
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