Who is Jim Trotter? NFL Network removes journalist months after confronting Roger Goodell on workplace diversity

A reporter who confronted NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on workplace diversity has left the league's fold.

Jim Trotter confirmed Monday morning (Eastern Time) on his Twitter account that he was leaving the NFL Media Group (which encompasses the NFL Network and NFL.com) after five years. He joined in 2018 and has served in various roles since then.

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Who is Jim Trotter? Pre-NFL background, and how did he become renowned

Before he joined the NFL Media Group, Trotter wrote for the San Diego Union-Tribune for 18 years, where he covered the NFL in general and the then San Diego Chargers in particular. He also briefly worked as an NFL reporter for NBC between 2006 and 2008 before establishing himself with Sports Illustrated, where he covered, among other things, the then Oakland Raiders' post-Al Davis rebuild and the media reaction to the murder of Washington safety Sean Taylor. In 2014, he moved to ESPN, his last job before joining the NFL's media division.

Trotter made headlines last year when, during a press conference before Super Bowl LVI, he asked Goodell about the lack of diversity in the league, from head coaches to front-office staff, even though blacks comprise most of the player base.

Goodell's response was as follows:

“We look at the same numbers and they’re really part of the effort that, again, looking at how do we become more effective in our policies and procedures. We work really hard, we believe in diversity. We believe in it as a value. We believe it’s made us stronger. People have come into the league who are diverse have been very successful and made us better and we just have to do a better job. Is there another thing that we can do to make sure we’re attracting that best talent here and making our league inclusive?

“I think what we have to do is just continue and find and look and step back and say, ‘We’re not doing a good enough job here.' We need to find better solutions and better outcomes and so, let’s find more effective policies. Let’s make sure everyone understands. Let’s make sure that we’re looking at diversity and, actually, incentivizing that for everybody in our building, including with compensation. Let’s make sure that when we’re dealing with vendors outside the building, we’re hiring diverse vendors and bringing them in and giving them an opportunity to succeed, just like we do with white vendors, or (in regard to) people of color, how can they come in and contribute to the NFL.

“So, I think it’s not a single answer. . . . The single responsibility comes on all of us in the NFL, and we have to be the ones that make that change and we are the ones that have to make sure we bring diversity deeper into our NFL and make the NFL an inclusive and diverse organization, that allows everyone the opportunity to be successful.”

Last month, during a media opportunity ahead of Super Bowl LVII, Trotter asked Goodell a similar question. The NFL commissioner responded:

“Jim, I am not in charge of the newsroom.

“As you point out, it’s the same question you asked last year. 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.

“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. 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.”

When asked about repeating the question on Sports Media with Richard Deitsch, Trotter said:

"...The commissioner and the NFL repeatedly over the years have said that diversity, equity, and inclusion are core principles of the NFL. And if that is true, then how can we have the type of data and numbers that we have as it related to Black people in the NFL, particularly in positions of power?

“They don’t let you get close to the commissioner often enough to actually have these dialogues. So, I knew that I had asked him about it the year before, and I knew that there had been no progress. No real progress as it related to the areas that I asked him about a year earlier."