PHOENIX — Attention, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier: The Rooney Rule is not going anywhere.

Despite claims from Uthmeier that the NFL’s diversity-driven policy violates Florida law and threats of potential legal action if officials do not plan to away with the policy, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell remained unwavering on pro football’s commitment to diversity.

“One thing that doesn’t change is our values, and we believe that diversity has been a benefit to the National Football League,” Goodell said on Tuesday as the league’s annual meeting concluded. “We are well aware of the laws and that laws are changing or evolving. We think the Rooney Rule is consistent with those, and we certainly will engage with the Florida AG, or anybody else, as we have in the past, to talk about our policies and what they are.”

The Rooney Rule requires teams to interview diverse candidates for senior leadership positions including head coach, general manager and coordinators. Uthmeier deemed the Rooney Rule unlawful, falsely stating that it mandates hiring practices that violate the laws in his state. But Goodell offered a correction.

“As you know, the Rooney Rule is not a hiring mandate,” Goodell explained during his news conference. “It’s intended to try to help, and to be used by industries far beyond football — far beyond the United States — to help identify candidates and a diverse set of candidates, to bring them better talent and give us an opportunity to hire the best talent. Ultimately, folks make those decisions individually, and those are, I think, principles of how we try to get better, bringing the best talent.”

When asked directly if the league had any plans to do away with the policy, Goodell responded decisively, “No. The Rooney Rule has been around a long time. We’ve evolved it and changed it. We’ll continue to do that if circumstances warrant.”

The NFL created the Rooney Rule in 2003 with the goal of increasing the number of people of color that teams considered for senior leadership roles. Eventually, the rule — named after the late owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers and former chairman of the NFL’s workplace diversity committee, Dan Rooney — was modified to increase the number of outside candidates of color interviewed for coordinator positions, and later expanded to require teams to add women to the distinction of candidates that fall in the diverse background category.

Steelers owner Art Rooney II was asked on Tuesday if any discussions during the meetings involved changing or doing away with the policy.

“Everybody’s still in favor of the Rooney Rule. No discussion about getting rid of it. That’s for sure.”

He added, “I don’t anticipate any dramatic changes to the Rooney Rule. We always are looking at our employment policies. Every year we do an analysis of what we do and what we can do to improve the situation, but don’t expect any major changes.”

The Rooney Rule stance ranked among a wide range of topics discussed by Goodell as the meetings broke. Highlights are as follows:

Officiating negotiations

Goodell acknowledged that the NFL’s negotiations toward a new labor deal with the NFL Referees Association have proved fruitless thus far.

“The negotiations haven’t progressed the way we hoped, from a timing standpoint,” Goodell said. “We obviously have obligations to our fans, to everybody in the National Football League to play, and we will be prepared to play, and so we are taking appropriate steps to be ready, but we’re also keenly focused on negotiations. So we’d like to get a negotiated deal, and we certainly are focused on that.”

One of the preparations Goodell referenced includes the proposal owners approved that will allow game officials to receive assistance from the NFL’s command center in New York to correct clear and obvious missed calls if the league has to use replacement referees this fall.

NFLPA and an 18th game

Meanwhile, Goodell said there are no plans to immediately begin holding negotiations with NFL’s other union partner, the NFL Players Association, towards a modification of the current CBA that runs through the 2030 season.

NFL owners very much would like to extend the season from 17 regular-season games to 18, and the international slate from the limit of 10 to 16. But doing so would require new negotiations with the NFLPA. League officials had refrained from holding even preliminary discussions on either expansion because the players union spent much of last season searching for a new executive director. The NFLPA just elected former offensive lineman and union president JC Tretter as the new executive director. However, Goodell said that officials will exercise patience as Tretter, who officially starts Wednesday, gets settled.

“I think there’s a reasonable time period to let (Tretter) get back in the saddle, as they say, and focus on what his membership is looking to accomplish, the priorities,” Goodell said. “I talked to JC. I actually saw him last weekend, and I know that that’s his primary focus, and it should be today, but I’m sure we’ll get to that at some point in the future.”

Olympics and flag football

NFL owners last year voted to permit NFL players to compete in the 2028 Summer Olympics when flag football makes its debut, and the league and its fans got their first glimpse of NFL stars competing in that sport two weekends ago as part of the Fanatics Flag Football Classic. The NFL players struggled against the members of the Team USA flag football veterans, but Goodell said the event served as a valuable teaching tool and only further stoked the excitement about seeing NFL players compete in the Olympics.

“I think we learned a lot over the weekend,” he said. “We learned a lot about the game. They are different games. The talent on both sides was fantastic, but the game’s different. The play calling is different, and so I think the NFL players’ reaction was great. As competitive as they are, they say, ‘We can win.’ So I think, I think we’ll see NFL players — and I know they want to play — in the Olympics. I think it’ll be great for football. I think it’ll be great for the Olympics.

“And I’m even more excited about young women having the opportunity to play flag football in general and the way that the game is accessible to play football, and on a global basis. … I think the Olympics are going to be more of a stage for us to show that off. So we’re looking forward to LA.”

— Mike DeFabo contributed to this report.