Charles Farrell, the president of Rainbow Sports, said his organization is pleased with the Packers' prompt response to the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition's inquiries into the reasons behind the firing of Rhodes, who is black, after one 8-8 season. Jackson is the coalition's president.

An intermediary between the two parties should have a telephone meeting set up soon, he said. Both Farrell and Packers president Bob Harlan said a face-to-face meeting between Jackson and Packers officials was also a possibility.

"My understanding is that the Packers are not ducking the question," Farrell said in a telephone interview from New York. "They appear very open and willing to discuss our concerns."

The coalition sent a letter to Packers GM Ron Wolf this week inquiring whether Rhodes was "held to a different standard" because of his race.

The letter, signed by Jackson and Farrell, also expressed the coalition's "grave concerns and disappointment" over the firing of Rhodes' top assistants, offensive coordinator Sherman Lewis and defensive coordinator Emmitt Thomas.

Along with Rhodes, Lewis and Thomas headed the NFL's first coaching staff with blacks in the top three positions.

The letter also asked the Packers to include more names of minority coaches in their pool of candidates for the vacancy. Farrell said he now believes the Packers are including a sufficient number of minorities in their list of candidates.

"We don't want it to be perceived that we're leveling accusations, because that was never our intent, but merely to express our concerns," Farrell said. "This is not a battle for (Rhodes') job, but it is a battle to make sure that African-Americans have an equal opportunity to succeed."

Harlan, who was in Milwaukee on Tuesday to speak to state legislators about funding solutions for the Packers' potential stadium renovation project, said the Packers stand behind Wolf's decision to fire Rhodes just hours after Green Bay missed the playoffs for the first time since 1992.

"Ron Wolf has given this franchise some of the best football it has ever seen," Harlan said. "He realized he made a mistake with Ray Rhodes, and he changed that."

In the letter to the Packers, the coalition also highlighted the NFL's continuing inability to advance minority coaching and front-office personnel.

Though more than 65 percent of the league's players are black, there are only two black head coaches -- Minnesota's Dennis Green, the NFL's longest-tenured coach, and Tampa Bay's Tony Dungy -- and no black general managers. Rhodes and Art Shell are the only other blacks to head a team during the league's modern era.

But Farrell praised NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue as "a man of immense credibility who knows that diversity is an issue and has to be addressed."

Farrell said Tagliabue is still trying to change his schedule in order to make an appearance at a Jan. 14 conference sponsored by the coalition in which sports opportunities for minorities will be addressed.

League officials told Farrell on Tuesday that they would discuss the matters privately with Jackson and Farrell "whenever we want to meet," he said.

Among the names mentioned as potential candidates for the four current head coaching vacancies in the league, only Stanford coach Tyrone Willingham and former Oakland defensive coordinator Willie Shaw are black.

Wolf is in Palo Alto, Calif., this week, where he plans to interview candidates during the days leading up to the East-West Shrine Game.