Opponents of the controversial Rooney Rule in the National Football League got a powerful boost from the attorney general of the state of Florida.

AG James Uthmeier posted a video Wednesday explaining that the rule requiring teams to interview minority candidates for open hiring positions violates Florida laws against discrimination.

‘We are putting Commissioner Roger Goodell on notice: the Rooney Rule violates Florida law, and it must stop.’

“Professional sports are a visible example of a merit-based system, but through the Rooney Rule, the NFL requires its teams to use race-based hiring practices,” Uthmeier wrote on the post on social media. “We are putting Commissioner Roger Goodell on notice: the Rooney Rule violates Florida law, and it must stop.”

He demanded that the NFL suspend the Rooney Rule and threatened legal action if it refused.

“Florida law is clear. Hiring decisions cannot be based on race, and the Rooney Rule mandates race-based interviews and incentivizes race-based decisions. That’s discrimination,” he added.

Former “SportsCenter” commentator Jemele Hill appeared to be outraged by the demand.

“So just to be clear: Florida is trying to challenge the NFL on the Rooney Rule when there are 3 Black coaches in the NFL, two Black offensive coordinators, and four Black general managers,” she wrote on social media.

“This is out of 32 teams. It seems like the system has worked swimmingly well for white guys, so … what’s the issue?” she added.

Others have spoken out against the rule, including BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock.

“The Rooney Rule inspired, encouraged, fosters racism. The Rooney Rule has been a mistake and needs to end. The Rooney Rule was the NFL saying, ‘Yep, we’ll hire any player. We’ll pay any of these black players $10, $15, $20, now $50 and $60 million a year. But you know what? When it comes to the head coaching position and these executive positions, we’re racist,'” Whitlock said in Aug. 2025.

“It hasn’t ended racism,” he added. “It hasn’t ended the allegations of racism. It’s actually inspired them.”

RELATED: Chicago Bears GM calls NFL’s race-based hiring ‘strange’ as league struggles with DEI incentive

“NFL teams and their fans don’t care about the race of the coaching staff. They want a merit-based system that gives their team the best chance to win,” Uthmeier concluded.

In February, Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles admitted that he didn’t see the rationale for the rule.

“I’ll be honest. I think it is a little strange,” he said. “I mean, at the end of the day, you should want to develop your staff regardless of the color of their skin.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Florida ag james uthmeier, Rooney rule, Jemele hill, Florida vs nfl, Politics 

A Chicago Democratic leader is slamming his own party, including Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, for ignoring the Biden-Harris administration’s role in the nation’s immigration crisis.

During a Fox News interview shared on Wednesday, Alderman Raymond Lopez reacted to the recent murder of 18-year-old Loyola University Chicago student Sheridan Gorman, who was fatally shot while out on a walk with friends in Chicago.

‘We will not allow the Trump administration to remove them simply because we don’t want to look as though we’re capitulating to him.’

The suspect in the attack, Jose Medina-Medina, is an illegal alien from Venezuela who was captured by U.S. Border Patrol agents in May 2023 and released into the country under the leadership of former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris. One month after his release, he was arrested in Chicago for allegedly shoplifting, but he was released from custody once again.

“Her death was 100% avoidable. And the culmination of the choices made here, in the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois, to protect noncitizens even when they choose to engage in dangerous criminal behavior — that mindset has to change,” Lopez told Fox News.

Lopez accused Pritzker of wrongly blaming President Donald Trump for Gorman’s death. The alderman made this comment in response to a clip of Pritzker from earlier in the week, where the governor attributed Gorman’s killing to “national failures.”

Pritzker claimed that Trump failed to “follow his own edict to go after the worst of the worst” criminals unlawfully present in the U.S.

RELATED: Will Pritzker honor ICE detainer against illegal alien accused of murdering 18-year-old college student?

JB Pritzker. Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg/Getty Images

“If you’re going to blame the federal government, then blame it where this problem began, which was under the Biden-Harris administration that allowed 15 million people from South America, Central America, and across the oceans to come through our southern borders, manipulate asylum, be poorly vetted, and then scattered to the seven winds of the United States,” Lopez told Fox News.

“I have yet to hear a single Democrat hold Biden and Harris accountable for what has happened,” he added.

RELATED: Chicago residents won’t get to vote on city’s sanctuary status after lawmakers block referendum

Raymond Lopez. Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service/Getty Images

Lopez explained that there are currently 2,000 high-priority targets in Chicago who are known dangers to the community, but noted that Democratic leaders “refuse to work” with Trump to remove them.

“We will not allow the Trump administration to remove them simply because we don’t want to look as though we’re capitulating to him,” Lopez stated.

Lopez has previously fought to roll back the city’s sanctuary laws to allow the Chicago Police Department to cooperate with federal immigration agents when illegal alien suspects have been arrested or convicted of certain crimes. He stated that his amendment to Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance “would NOT have protected” Medina-Medina from federal immigration enforcement.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​News, Jb pritzker, Pritzker, Illinois, Chicago, Donald trump, Trump, Trump administration, Trump admin, Joe biden, Kamala harris, Biden administration, Biden admin, Biden-harris, Biden-harris administration, Biden-harris admin, Raymond lopez, Jose medina-medina, Sheridan gorman, Illegal immigration crisis, Illegal immigration, Immigration crisis, Immigration, Politics 

While criticizing opposition to the H-1B program, comedian Hasan Minhaj attempted to highlight the role of skilled foreign workers in fields like tech and engineering — but BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales isn’t having it.

“If you’re a Democrat, you would rather just allow foreigners to come in, exploit our system, abuse our system, rip off Americans, and steal American jobs. You would rather do that than just admit there’s a problem,” Gonzales says.

“And one of the biggest culprits of this type of gaslighting is Hasan Minhaj,” she adds, before playing a clip from the former “Daily Show” host’s latest YouTube video titled, “Why MAGA hates H-1B visas.”

“Now, the H-1B is under attack because MAGA has suddenly become obsessed with hating them,” Minhaj said.

Minhaj then played a clip of Jack Posobiec claiming that “India milks the H-1B system dry” and replaces “American workers in our own tech companies.”

Even Gonzales was featured in his video, where he chose a clip of her saying, “The only way to stop it for good is to end the H-1B program.”

“He just talks really fast and makes it seem like he understands the issue. But in the first minutes, he completely blew up his own argument,” Gonzales comments.

“H-1B visas are special visas granted to skilled foreign workers, mostly in STEM fields. I’m talking about science, tech, engineering, and math. And indians f**king dominate that s**t,” Minhaj said proudly.

“Of the 85,000 new H-1B visas issued a year, about 70% of them go to Indians. And since their creation in 1990, they have been a critical rung on the ladder to citizenship,” he continued.

“You just blew up your own argument. Correct. It is meant for skilled workers. Yes, that’s what the system is supposed to bring in — not for the endless farm of fake software engineers, not for the food service managers that we’re finding, not for administrative assistants, not for ice cream sales analysts, not for the ones that we have been seeing play out,” Gonzales explains.

“Here’s the other issue, Hasan. An immigrant visa is issued to a person wishing to live permanently in the United States, OK? A non-immigrant visa is issued to a person with permanent residence outside the United States — notice the word ‘permanent’ — but wishes to be in the United States on a temporary basis for tourism, medical treatment, business, temporary work, or study, as other examples,” she continues.

Minhaj also used a clip of the late Charlie Kirk explaining that when hiring for an organization, you should “prioritize merit,” which the comedian followed up by saying, “If America is all about letting the best rise to the top, how do you justify shutting down legal immigration? I mean, that’s anti-competitive.”

“So, it’s not anti-competitive. … They are replacing American jobs for cheaper labor,” Gonzales responds, pointing out that many of the jobs aren’t even hiring for “specialized skill sets.”

“I’m going to go out on a limb and tell you, I don’t need an Indian to come in and teach elementary school science in this country. It’s not anti-competitive. It’s gaming the system,” she says.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Sara gonzales, Sara gonzales unfiltered, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Hasan minhaj, Maga, H-1b visas, Immigration, Legal immigration, Illegal immigration, Jack posobiec, Charlie kirk 

Socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s efforts to cut his administration’s budget while calling for massive new spending has hit a rather embarrassing snag.

The socialist scion said he asked all government offices to come up with spending cuts that would add up to $1.7 billion savings for the annual budget of about $127 billion. He gave them a deadline of March 20.

The sum of the savings he reported was about $200 million — which comes to about one-tenth of 1% of the entire budget.

After the date came and went, the administration faced tough questions about how well it was meeting its targets.

Almost comically, he posted a video Wednesday touting a few of the meager savings by pretending to find money under cushions and behind paintings in the mayor’s mansion.

The sum of the savings he reported was about $200 million — which comes to about one-tenth of 1% of the entire budget.

The New York Post reported that city officials refused to release any information about the cuts but said to trust that they were hitting the targets.

Mamdani’s budget director, Sherif Soliman, was unable to answer many questions about the plan at a preliminary budget hearing with the city council on Wednesday. Instead he defended the controversial decision from City Hall to raid a rainy day fund as well as a retiree health benefit trust fund to balance the budget.

“We want to replenish reserves, and we want to grow reserves,” he told council members. “This was out of necessity for what was an inherited significant budget challenge that stems from under-budgeting.”

“We will continue to update as we identify more savings,” Soliman added.

He also blamed former Mayor Eric Adams (D) for the massive $5.4 billion deficit that needed to be filled by law. Mamdani also passed the buck onto Adams in a separate press conference Wednesday.

“While we all predicted that it would be a difficult fiscal situation that we would find in January, there are very few who believe that it would be at the scale that we have found,” the mayor said. “This is a fiscal crisis that has been entirely created within city government as opposed to one that can be blamed on external factors as we’ve seen in 2008.”

RELATED: Mamdani reverses controversial policy after 19 NYC residents die outdoors

Mamdani has demanded that the state pass new taxes on the wealthy to help him fulfill his promise for new massive social welfare spending, but even other state Democrats said they would oppose the effort.

The mayor then threatened to raise property taxes, but that effort was opposed by members of the city council and likely wouldn’t pass.

It has been 84 days since the socialist was sworn into office.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Mayor zohran mamdani, Mamdani budget failure, Socialist mamdani cuts, Mamdani failures, Politics