Back in 1983, Susan Tose Spencer broke barriers by becoming the first woman to be a big boss in the NFL, working with the Philadelphia Eagles for two years.
Fast forward to 2022, Catherine Raîche took a significant step by becoming the assistant GM and VP of football operations for the Cleveland Browns, making her the highest-ranking woman in the NFL.
In the NFL world, a general manager (GM) is like the team’s head decision-maker for sports-related stuff, such as dealing with contracts, trades, and deciding who gets to play or not.
In last week’s NFL meetings, Commissioner Roger Goodell expressed enthusiasm about the prospect of having female general managers in the league and called the idea ‘fantastic’.
Another big shot in the NFL, the former Raiders CEO Amy Trask, is all about having women in top roles focusing on merit and equal chances rather than things like gender or race. Trask thinks it’s cool that more women are working on the football side of things in the NFL.
As reported by USA Today, surprisingly, there’s been a 141% increase in the number of women doing full-time coaching and football operations jobs since 2020, with 223 women doing these jobs in the current season.
This is a big deal, especially since there have been issues in the past about gender problems and bad workplaces in the NFL.
Trask, who was the first woman CEO of an NFL team, looks back and sees progress.
She points out that players care more about how you help the team win than whether you’re a man or a woman.
The NFL, led by Troy Vincent, has this yearly list of people ready to take on big jobs like head coach, coordinator, or GM.
In the latest list, they included four women as potential GMs:
- Dawn Aponte, the NFL’s senior VP for football operations.
- Jacqueline Davidson, the VP for football research for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
- Kelly Kleine, the executive director of football operations/special advisor to the GM for the Denver Broncos.
- Catherine Raiche, the assistant GM for the Cleveland Browns.
