Jennifer King, a successful women’s basketball coach, decided to switch to a career in football and hasn’t looked back since.
In just three years after making the switch, King became the first Black woman to be a full-time coach in the NFL when Washington hired her in 2021 as an assistant running backs coach.
After three seasons with the Commanders, she joined the Chicago Bears this year as an offensive assistant, focusing on running backs under head coach Matt Eberflus.
This season, King is one of 15 women working full-time as NFL coaches, a record for the league and the highest number for any major professional sports league.
King’s transition to football started in 2018 when she met then-Panthers coach Ron Rivera at the NFL’s Women’s Forum, an event that connects women with key figures in the league.
At the time, King had just led Johnson & Wales University-Charlotte to a championship and was named national coach of the year. Despite her success in basketball, she had always preferred football.
She played quarterback and safety on a women’s tackle football team and was eager for a coaching opportunity in football.
“I always liked football more,” King said. “But it was hard to leave basketball. We had won a championship. I was national coach of the year. Like, things were going really well for me. And to just leave was difficult, but I just felt it was something that I couldn’t pass up.”
King’s basketball team practiced near the Panthers’ training facility, allowing her to watch and hear their practices. When she met Rivera, he already knew about her basketball success. Rivera’s wife, Stephanie, who was an assistant coach in the WNBA, had mentioned that a woman with experience in the game would do well in coaching.
“He invited me over for rookie minicamp,” King said. “I thought I’d be there for two days, but it turned into about four months.”
In the summer of 2018, King worked as a coaching intern for the Panthers, focusing on wide receivers. She then joined Rick Neuheisel’s team as an assistant wide receivers coach and special teams coach for the short-lived Alliance of American Football.
In 2019, King returned to Carolina as a running backs coaching intern and later joined Dartmouth’s staff as an offensive assistant that fall.
When Rivera became head coach of Washington in 2020, King joined his staff again as a coaching intern. The next year, she was hired full-time.
“She had a drive about her that just really said she wanted to do this, and she also played the game,” Rivera said. “She talked about the little things that she learned in playing, showing how aware she is about the game.
So I just thought that she had this desire, this drive to want to do this at the top level, and I wanted to create an opportunity.
“As we were going through the internship, the one thing I appreciated was she was smart enough to know what she didn’t know. And you could tell because she became really inquisitive.
She asked good questions, she listened, and she didn’t pretend to know. Believe me, I’ve been around (male) coaches who pretend to know.
And, when they do that, usually, they get it wrong. But she just listened when she didn’t know and that’s what truly intrigued me was that she was willing to just take a backseat, listen, take it in, and ask questions.”
In the past five years, the number of women in football operation roles in the NFL has increased by 187%. Since the Women’s Forum started in 2017, over 400 women have participated, leading to more than 250 opportunities in football at all levels.
“The first Women’s Forum I went to had women from other jobs outside of football who wanted to get into the sport,” King said. “This year, almost everyone there was already working in football, which is amazing.
So, I think we’re definitely moving in the right direction. There are a lot of bright stars coming up through the ranks.”
King said she hasn’t faced major issues as one of the few female coaches in a male-dominated field.
“I’ve been lucky to work with some great teams,” she said. “Coach Flus, we have a great staff here. It’s all about development, which I love. He’s focused on leadership.
So, the challenges haven’t been as people might expect. I haven’t really encountered any negative reactions to being a woman here. It’s all about building relationships and trust with the players and staff.”
King also mentioned how exciting it is to see many women succeeding in various roles in the league, not just as coaches but also in business and team roles.
Rivera, who has been a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion, believes that the NFL could have a female head coach in the future.
“I think it will start with a coordinator role first. As long as we keep giving women opportunities to succeed or fail, we’ll eventually find the right one,” Rivera said. “I believe we’ve created enough opportunities that the right person will eventually get their chance.”
