Toronto Star Classroom Connection

Women buying in on and off the field

Coaches, participation, fan base on rise

ROB MAADDI

There was a time when the NFL thought appealing to female fans meant pink jerseys and bedazzled apparel. Not anymore.

The league has made it a priority to increase opportunities for women, from front-office positions to the sidelines. This season, the NFL had more women in on-field assistant coaching roles (15) than any other men’s professional league.

“I think something we’ve done well in the past couple of years that I feel passionate about — and we speak to thousands of women who love the sport — is that we don’t want to be othered as football fans,” said Sam Rapoport, the NFL’s senior director of diversity, equity and inclusion. “We love the sport. We’re into it. We love the storylines. We love the stats. We want to talk about it on Sundays. We want to use it as a connection tool with our family.”

Rapoport, a former quarterback in a women’s pro tackle football league, has spent two decades working to expand career opportunities for women in the NFL. She goes to the stats to prove her point.

Women and girls (age 8 and up) made up 46 per cent of the NFL’s total fan base in the United States — 84 million female fans in 2021, according to last year’s SSRS Sports Poll. Among NFL fans under age 35, 45 per cent are female.

They’re not just watching. They’re playing, too. In U.S. high schools, 24 per cent more girls are playing football (tackle and flag) compared to 2014-15.

“The numbers don’t lie, right?” Rapoport said on the “AP Pro Football” podcast. “Half of our fan base are women and they’re avid fans ... We’re in front of the television

screaming our heads off that there was a pick six.”

She created the NFL Women’s Forum in 2017 to connect qualified women to football operations positions. More than 225 candidates have been hired since it launched.

“An interesting part of the NFL Women’s Forum that I think a lot of people don’t know is, it’s not like a rah-rah women’s empowerment forum,” Rapoport said. “You could put any 40 people in that room and everything would be applicable to them. So, we don’t start out the music with: ‘I am woman, hear me roar.’ And we don’t have pink streamers ...

“I don’t want to take pink away from little boys and girls in any gen

der who do want a pink Tom Brady jersey; that’s cool. But the truth is that what we’re trying to do is, we don’t want to subtly show women that there is a place for them. You need to organically show everyone that everyone belongs.”

As the number of women working in the NFL rises, there will come a point when it’s considered standard procedure for teams to hire female executives and coaches.

“It doesn’t feel like a big deal that I’m a woman (in the NFL),” Katie Sylvan said about her role as director of football administration with the Los Angeles Chargers. “I do look forward to that (becoming the norm).”

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2022-11-26T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-11-26T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://torontostarnie.pressreader.com/article/283274576755812

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