Jen Welter put in years of work, before being announced as an Arizona Cardinals assistant coaching intern, and first female coach of any kind in the NFL, earlier this week. The team moved from the pines of Flagstaff three years ago. Encouragingly, the reaction to Welter’s appointment appears to be, so far at least, nearly exclusively positive. Given the barriers women face in the sports world – like wage gaps, sexualization and discrimination – the Arizona Cardinals’ accomplished new coach is inspirational.
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The calendar has turned to August and in all reality, football season is here.
After shedding a block, Arizona Cardinals’ C.J. Roberts runs up the field during an NFL football organized team activity, Tuesday, June 9, 2015, in Tempe, Ariz.
This is the first of 19 training camp practices open to the public. “Coaching is nothing more than teaching”. “One thing I have learned from players is, ‘How are you going to make me better?”
“The last time we played them with all our starters we beat ’em”, he said. Earlier in a press conference this year, the entertaining and blunt coach was asked how men would react to a woman coach and if women would or could coach in football.
The bottom line is if you can teach someone to do their job better, then you should have the job.
Solomon says the biggest challenge Welter may face is dealing with veteran players but has not questioned her coaching ability. Floyd said he thinks Palmer’s arm “is a lot stronger”. “The beauty of this, while it wasn’t a dream I could have ever had, now it’s a dream other girls can grow up having”. “So I guess if that makes me a trailblazer, then”.
“She wants young girls to have a role model they can look up to and aspire to… we women are definitely underrated”. What Welter’s appointment also shows is that America is light years ahead of Britain when it comes to promoting equality within the sporting sphere. She acted as head coach for the Spurs during this year’s Summer League.
In fact, Welter still has the paycheck from her first season with the Dallas Diamonds in 2004, playing in the Women’s Football Alliance. This, of course, does not mean that every football fan in Britain is sexist, but it does hint that a female manager would be the target of similar abuse, if not even more so, which is likely to discourage club owners from taking the plunge and being the first club to appoint a female manager. “We’ll see how it goes and be on the safe side”.
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During training camps, offseason workouts, and minicamps, candidates are given opportunity to observe, participate, gain experience, and eventually gain a full-time coaching position in the NFL, as mentioned by the program’s official website.
