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Trailblazing women are earning roles in male-dominated sports — deservedly so.
Specifically for football, one of the biggest sports in the U.S., more females are on the field, on the sidelines and in executive positions in just the past few years since the NFL was founded over 100 years ago.
In the 2021 season, there’s a total of 12 women coaching in the league, which is the highest number yet. Earlier this month, another long-awaited milestone made news when Maia Chaka became the first Black female to officiate a game.
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Chaka, who was hired on the league’s roster of game officials in March, became the first Black woman to officiate an NFL game and the third on-field female ref in the league. (Sarah Thomas was the first permanent female game official and Shannon Eastin was the first woman to officiate an NFL game.)
Speaking about “not growing up playing football competitively,” Chaka, who is a health and PE teacher in Virginia, found knowledge and experience elsewhere to prove “that I can defy the odds, overcome and pretty much master the craft of a sport that I didn’t play but I have the love and passion for.”
“Hopefully that gives somebody else some inspiration and empowers them to step outside the box, to do something different and defy the odds. You don’t necessarily have to go with the norm, it’s okay to step outside your comfort zone, try something and be successful at it as long as you work hard towards it,” she shared.
“For me, that was the key thing. My skills and abilities didn’t come overnight. They came with a lot of hardships, they came with a lot of long nights, a lot of early mornings and a lot of dedication. I just stuck with it. I’m happy to be here and happy to be able to represent,” Chaka said.
On the sidelines and behind the scenes, there is another woman of color breaking ground.
In January, Jennifer King was named assistant running backs coach for the Washington Football Team, a promotion which made her the first Black woman to serve as a full-time coach in the NFL.
“It’s definitely important that I’m not the only one,” King tells PEOPLE of her history-making coaching title.
King’s role comes six years after Jen Welter became the first woman to serve in an NFL coaching role in 2015.
“You got to start somewhere, we’re better than it was a year ago and better than was two years ago. We’re trending in the right direction. I think there’s a pipeline on the way as well, but I’m definitely thankful and happy to see that eruption that is heading right now,” she says, adding, “There are some groundbreakers now in baseball and basketball as well so there’s a lot of really good things going on right now.”
But King notes: “A lot of a lot of hard work went into getting here, but the main thing is staying here.”
On the advice she would relay to other women and women of color hoping to find jobs in the sports world, King says it’s all about never settling.
“Continue to grow, continue to learn and make yourself valuable,” she shares. “Always try to get better, always be striving to get better. Meet people and create those opportunities for yourself. Because a lot of times, those opportunities aren’t going to be given to you. When you get those opportunities, you have to be ready. Just make sure you’re ready when you get those opportunities because you never know when the opportunity is going to come. You have to be ready. "
Though they never set out to be the “first” in the NFL, Chaka and King will certainly not be the last women to impact their sport.
source: people.com
