Evaluation: NFL transferring nearer to 1st feminine head coach

January 21, 2022

0 1 4 minutes read

The NFL is nearing its first female head coach. It might be a few more years…

The NFL is nearing its first female head coach.

It may be a few more years, maybe another decade. However, the question is no longer if it will happen, but when it will happen.

“We’ve basically asked everyone that, including all the head coaches, and I think the general consensus is that it’s going to happen,” Jane Skinner Goodell said on the AP Pro Football Podcast. “I think the main thing that everyone seemed to stress was that it has to happen organically and fit well, right? It will happen. This job posting will have the right candidate, who happens to be a woman, and hopefully it works out. … I think it’s probably in the near future. I would never guess when, but everyone, including women, wants it to happen the right way, so it’s the right person at the right time.”

Skinner Goodell, a former television reporter married to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, is Executive Producer of a new five-part documentary series from NFL Films entitled Earnin’ It. The series sheds light on the careers of some of the most powerful women working in the league. The first episode airs Sunday on Peacock.

Last year, Tampa Bay Buccaneers assistant defense coach Lori Locust and assistant strength and conditioning coach Maral Javadifar became the first team coaches to win the Super Bowl. Sarah Thomas also made history as the first woman to officiate a Super Bowl and serve as a down judge.

In 2020, Katie Sowers became the first woman to coach a Super Bowl. She was an offensive assistant for the San Francisco 49ers in their loss to Kansas City.

“Earnin’ It” focuses on Locust, Thomas, Washington, assistant running backs coach Jennifer King, and other trailblazing women. It will feature first-hand accounts from NFL owners, coaches, players, officials, agents and other league insiders.

“The pace of change in bringing smart footballers, who just happen to be female, into the game has been really fast,” said Skinner Goodell. “I’m a former reporter and just felt like someone needed to cover this because it’s such a great story for the NFL. It’s so different to think of women in such a heavily male-dominated industry. But I also feel like if you’re in a different industry you could look at it and say I’d like to change something and bring more diverse voices, a wider range of voices into our company or our team, or whatever it might be.”

Singer/songwriter Ciara, wife of Seattle Seahawks star quarterback Russell Wilson, will voice the series.

“I’m honored to be a part of something so special that will no doubt have meaning for so many people,” said Ciara. “I am amazed by their incredible stories and grateful to be able to share them with the world.”

Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians, Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott, Hall of Famer cornerback Deion Sanders and New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley are among many men speaking out about women’s influence on football.

Arians realized that women deserved a chance to coach in the NFL in the early 1990s when he met Dot Murphy, an assistant at Hinds Junior College.

“I trained with them all the time and she was a hell of a coach, so I knew it at the time,” Arians said. “It was only who wanted to open the door. That would be the thing.”

Arians and other prominent trainers helped kick down that door. Washington coach Ron Rivera, in one of the episodes, tells a story about how he stood up at a league meeting and told the owners to consider hiring female coaches.

“You can’t even quantify the impact,” Skinner Goodell said of the coaches’ support.

An organization is more likely to first hire a woman to direct the team’s football activities. The Minnesota Vikings interviewed Philadelphia Eagles vice president of football operations Catherine Raîche this week for the GM job. Prior to the season, the Denver Broncos hired Kelly Kleine as executive director of football operations and special advisor to the general manager.

Susan Tose Spencer was the Eagles’ first and only female general manager in the 1980s. Her father, Leonard Tose, owned the team back then.

In baseball, Kim Ng is the general manager of the Miami Marlins.

“The biggest problem was that a few years ago there was no way for women to get into the league,” Skinner Goodell said. “So creating a pipeline that would allow a really smart, talented soccer woman to get an opportunity to meet a Ron Rivera who could take a chance on her or Kevin Stefanski or Sean McDermott or whoever it may be fact Creating a pipeline was probably the biggest challenge in my opinion. And now that it’s here and becoming more robust, I think we’re likely to continue this pace of change.”

Sam Rapoport, the NFL’s senior director of diversity, equity and inclusion and former professional quarterback, created that pipeline by creating the NFL’s Women’s Careers in Football Forum in 2017.

“You know, the face of the NFL is changing and the look of the NFL is changing,” she said. “And there is no question that this train cannot be slowed down. Progress will continue.”

Next stop: a female head coach in the NFL.

___

Follow Rob Maaddi on Twitter at https://twitter.com/robmaaddi and see his work at https://apnews.com/search/robmaaddi

___

For more AP NFL coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL