NFL media lets columnist Jim Trotter walk after pressing Roger Goodell on minority hiring

NFL media is letting veteran reporter Jim Trotter walk after publicly clashing with commissioner Roger Goodell on minority hiring at the league’s network and website.

‘Some personal news,’ Trotter tweeted Monday. ‘This will be my final week with the NFL Media Group.

‘I was informed over the weekend that my contract is not being renewed. I thank NFL Network and NFL.com for the lessons learned and affirmed over the last five years.’

An NFL media spokesman did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment. The New York Post previously reported about looming cuts at NFL Media, which one source said was due to ‘this period of broader economic uncertainty.’ A source familiar with the league’s thinking echoed a similar explanation to DailyMail.com on Tuesday. 

Trotter publicly confronted Goodell at his annual Super Bowl press conference in each of the last two years, questioning the Commissioner on why there haven’t been more African Americans hired by NFL media at the senior level and in the newsroom.

NFL media is letting Jim Trotter walk after publicly clashing with commissioner Roger Goodell

Goodell accused of Trotter of having misleading information during one exchange 

‘You and other league officials have said that the league’s commitment to diversity, equity inclusion extends beyond the sidelines and front offices and is applied to all aspects of the company,’ Trotter said at Goodell’s February press conference.

‘I’ve worked at NFL Media for five years, during those five years we have never had a black person in senior management in our newsroom,’ continued Trotter. ‘That’s a problem because we cover a league, that according to league data, the player population is 60-70 percent black, which means that there’s no one who looks like these players at the table when decisions are being made about how they are covered.

‘More concerning is that for a year-plus now we have not had a full-time black employee on the news desk, which again is a problem because we cover a league whose player population is 60-70 percent black.

‘I asked you about these things last year and your answer was that the league had fallen short and you were going to review all of your policies and practices to try and improve this and yet a year later nothing has changed.

‘James Baldwin once said that I can’t believe what you say because I see what you do. And so what I would ask you, as an employee, is when, in the newsroom, will we have a black person in senior management and when will we have a full-time black employee on the news desk?’

Goodell stressed to Trotter that he is ‘not in charge of the newsroom,’ but attempted to answer the question nonetheless.

‘As you point out, it’s the same question you asked last year,’ Goodell said. ‘We did go back and we have reviewed everything we’ve been doing across the league and we are looking at everything from vendors that we’re working with to partners that we’re working with to ownership where we’ve seen significant changes in diversity just this year.’

Goodell did not offer many particulars.

‘I do not know specifically about our media business, and I will check in again with our people, but I’m comfortable that we made significant progress across the league,’ he said. ‘I can’t answer this specific question [and] some of the data you may have raised there may be accurate, may be not. Last year I was told some of it wasn’t. We’ll get to you on that. We want to make progress across the board and that includes in the media room.’

Trotter seemed to address NFL media’s claims in a tweet on Tuesday (pictured)

Trotter rejected NFL Media’s claim that 58 percent of full-time hires were ‘people of color’

NFL media told the Post that among 2022 full-time hiring, 58 percent went to people of color, and that includes three recent senior-level positions.

Trotter, who declined to comment to DailyMail.com, seemed to address NFL media’s claims in a tweet on Tuesday.

‘When someone says Person of Color, ask them for the specific data for BLACK people,’ Trotter wrote

‘When someone says Media Group, ask them for specific data for the NEWSROOM,’ he added.

He then called out NFL media’s spokesman, Alex Riethmiller: ‘That’s on background, right @AlexRiethmiller?’