Back to the NFL Newsfeed

Report: NFL Considering Closing Rooney Rule Loophole After Bruce Arians' Retirement

When Bruce Arians retired from coaching this week and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quickly replaced him with defensive coordinator Todd Bowles, the team technically used a Rooney Rule loophole to do so.

The Rooney Rule requires NFL teams to interview at least two external minority candidates for any head-coaching vacancy. But after March 1, teams do not have to make their own assistants available for interviews with other organizations, so in the case of the Bucs, the NFL allowed the team to promote Bowles to head coach without conducting any external minority interviews.

Tom Pelissero

The <a href="https://twitter.