Post By : 2025-05-20"

Jerry Jones admits Trump anti-DEI message made NFL more 'aware' in wake of accelerator program pause"

The NFL announced last year it will pause its coaching accelerator program. In the wake of that decision, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones admits recent Supreme Court rulings and rhetoric from President Donald Trump made an impact in that regard.

Since 2022, the accelerator program has been held in conjunction with the NFL's spring meetings, and it serves as a chance for minority coaching talent to network with decision-makers. That won't happen this year, and in an interview with USA Today, Jones admitted that Trump's anti-DEI policy positions have made the league more "aware."
 

"The emphasis the president puts on it just makes us all aware and thinking about it," Jones said.

Jones added that, more than anything Trump has said specifically, a 2023 Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action has influenced some decision-making.

"I don't believe and have seen nothing from talking to anybody, that this is a reaction to that," Jones told USA Today. "I think you'd be naïve if you didn't think the Supreme Court decisions have impacted decisions all over the country. The issue of technically, how and what you're doing, I think that's a lot more influenced than anything our president is talking about."

Despite those comments from Jones, Pittsburgh Steelers owner and NFL diversity committee chair Art Rooney II says the NFL isn't abandoning its diversity efforts.

"I realize that people are going to look at this and say, 'These people are backing off,'" Rooney told USA Today. "That's not going to happen. There's nothing I can really do about that perception, except to say that we're still not satisfied with where we are, and we recognize that we still have work to do."

Just last week, NFL EVP and chief administrative officer Dasha Smith spoke with our own Jonathan Jones about the decision to put the accelerator program on hiatus. Smith said the NFL is re-evaluating the program with the hopes of making improvements, one of which will be combining head coaching and front office candidates.

"Part of the feedback that we got was that there's a lot of benefit to having the two groups together, mostly for their own networking with each other," Smith said, "which makes sense in sort of understanding what their world looks like, and the head coach candidates and the GM candidates, really having that opportunity to network with each other."