PATRICK GRAHAM SAT at a table set for five at a Jacksonville steakhouse in January 2025. He had shown up to meet with Jaguars owner Shahid Khan and team executives after interviewing for the head coaching job earlier that day.
The then- Las Vegas Raiders defensive coordinator waited alone for about 30 minutes, his hopes for getting the job fading minute by minute. He took a selfie with the empty chairs.
Graham didn't know it yet, but the group of Jaguars executives had not shown for the dinner because, at the same time, they were discussing a contract with future head coach Liam Coen, who had reentered the interview process after withdrawing the previous day. The dinner marked Graham's second awkward moment that day -- two NFL sources told ESPN -- as he had run into Coen while he was leaving the team facility, the first sign that Coen might have had the job in hand even as Graham interviewed for it.
The pain he felt that night as he waited at the table and for weeks after wasn't because he didn't get the job -- "that's life," he said -- it was because of the way he didn't get the job. "I was hurt through the process," Graham said.
Once home, Graham collapsed to his knees crying on the floor of his garage. "It just made me think, like, 'Damn, I haven't done enough,'" Graham, now the Pittsburgh Steelers ' defensive coordinator, told ESPN.
"Football is pretty high on my priority list. And it felt like the thing that I hold in the highest regard let me down and crushed me." Graham's story spread quickly throughout the NFL, and for other Black coaches, it sounded familiar: a perceived sham interview and a coach left questioning his worth and NFL future.
Graham was the second minority candidate to interview for the job in person, meaning the Jaguars were compliant with the NFL's Rooney Rule -- designed to even the playing field for underrepresented coaching candidates -- as soon as he walked out the door. The Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview minority candidates for several positions -- has seen successes over the past 23 years.
(The NFL defines "minority" or "diverse" candidates under the Rooney Rule broadly, including Black, Latino, Asian, Indigenous and women candidates.) But significant progress remains elusive, and in some coaches' eyes, the NFL's interviewing process is so fraught with issues that they are taking themselves out of the interviewing process. According to The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, in 2023, Black players made up roughly 54% of the league's rostered players.
Yet only three of the 32 head coaches entering the 2026 NFL season are Black. Today, the Rooney Rule is at a crossroads.
The policy faces a legal attack from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier as part of his campaign to retain his seat -- the latest volley coming in May when he issued an investigative subpoena to the NFL over its diversity and hiring practices. And a lawsuit by former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores, the most significant challenge to the NFL's hiring practices to date, is proceeding in federal court after the Supreme Court declined to hear the NFL's petition.
Last week, a federal judge rejected another effort to move portions of the lawsuit to arbitration, ruling that those claims must proceed in federal court. Over the past year, the NFL has walked back two programs that were a key part of efforts to improve equitable hiring.
And the league is coming off the latest hiring cycle with only one minority head coach -- the Tennessee Titans ' Robert Saleh -- hired among a record-tying 10 openings. Of the 16 minority candidates who interviewed for those jobs, 13 are Black.
(Saleh is Lebanese American.) Coaches remain so fearful and distrustful of the hiring process that many are not comfortable speaking publicly about it, but ESPN interviewed more than 20 executives, coaches and agents about how they view the league's efforts and the rule's effectiveness. Graham spoke with ESPN last summer about his experiences but declined to revisit them this offseason.
More than a dozen minority coaches declined to comment for this story, citing concerns that speaking candidly would jeopardize future opportunities. Among the 13 Black coaches who did speak -- some on the record but most anonymously -- the issue is clear: Even with hiring rules in place, they feel they cannot overcome ownership bias or the long-established relationships that shape hiring.
"There's no purpose of trying to rethink the rule unti