Welter is a former rugby player at Boston College.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: The Arizona Cardinals have hired the first female coach in history of the National Football League, the team and the NFL said Monday.
Jen Welter, a former rugby player at Boston College, played 14 seasons in women’s pro football and was the first woman to play a non-kicking position in a men’s pro league as a running back for the Texas Revolution of Indoor Football League. She later became the first female coach in professional football when she joined the Revolution’s staff.
She also won gold medals with Team U.S.A. in the International Federation of American Football Women’s World Championships in 2010 and 2013, and she has a master’s degree in sports psychology and a Ph.D. in psychology.
With the Cardinals, Welter will work with inside linebackers as a training camp-preseason intern coach, reported NBC News.
“Coaching is nothing more than teaching,” Arians said Monday. “One thing I have learned from players is, ‘How are you going to make me better? If you can make me better, I don’t care if you’re the Green Hornet … I’ll listen.”
“I really believe she’ll have a great opportunity with this internship through training camp to open some doors for her,” he continued.
Welter joins Becky Hammon among the very small group of women coaching major league men’s sports. Hammon was hired last season as an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association, reported ABC News; just last week, she led the Spurs’ developmental team to the NBA Summer League championship.