The end of another NFL season means the end for several head coaches. Eight teams, including the Miami Dolphins, started the search for their next head coach. Teams like the Jets and Cardinals are looking for a leader to rebuild the organization, or for a team like the Packers, a leader that can give them one last chance to hoist a Lombardi trophy. During this process, teams look at candidates with established success or this year’s trend of the young and offensive. Several candidates will be considered and interviewed each team, but how many of those candidates happened to be a woman? Will the NFL’s Rooney Rule, that requires teams to interview ethnic-minority candidates before hiring, be expanded to include women as a minority?
The head coach-needy Cleveland Browns were rumored to be interviewing former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to be the first woman NFL head coach. Although proven to be false, the rumor shed a light on the women already making history in the NFL. In 2015, Jennifer Welter became the first woman to coach in the NFL when she was named as the inside linebackers coach for the Arizona Cardinals. Welter’s position was only for the duration of training camp, but she left a mark on the league. The following year Kathryn Smith became the first woman full time coach by joining the Buffalo Bills and was followed by Katie Sowers in 2017 as the 49er’s assistant coach. Sowers also became the first openly gay NFL coach and the first woman full time coach to retain her position for a second season. These are only a few of the pioneers.
These women have played in professional women and men’s leagues and have experiences they can use to relate to their players. These women have also slowly been working their way up the coaching tier after starting as interns and have dedicated their lives to advancing the sport. Women should not be hired out of pity or to jump on a bandwagon movement.
When the day comes for a woman head coach, that woman needs to be ready to hold the door open for more to follow her, so her experience and success is crucial. These women lack NFL playing experience, so they need to prove their NFL capability through successful coaching experiences. I am not saying that these teams should hire Welter or Sowers as their head coach, but women should at least be seriously considered as potential candidates to be added the new head coaching staff, rather than a publicity stunt.
Teams will have to see a long tenure of success to take a chance on these women, unlike these first year coordinators already getting head coaching interviews. She has to gain her coaching experience from somewhere. A woman, like a minority candidate should be hired because she deserves the position. She should be hired when she has years of proven success.
In a few years, these women pioneers may be ready for the job but not right now. We will have to wait for them to continue to climb the ladder and become defensive and offensive coordinators first. Teams will need evidence of these women as powerful leaders of men. According to Pro Football Talk, John Dorsey, the Browns general manager, told the media, “I just want the best possible head coach to move this thing forward, regardless of age. It could be a woman, too.” What if the best candidate is a woman with a brilliant football IQ and proven successful, but she is competing against former players? Then she should be hired because she is the best regardless of her gender.
