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Jennifer King has already gained another position within the Washington Football Team organization.

She is now the first Black woman position coach in the history of the NFL. During WFT’s week 15 matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles, the 37-year-old made her debut as the lead running backs coach.

 

Prior to claiming this honor, King stepped in for the WFT’s the current lead running back coach, Randy Jordan. He was placed on the team’s COVID-19/Reserve list on Monday along with six other coaches. In January she made history for being hired as one of the assistant running back coaches for the team. Jennifer King even shares the same of being one of two full-time woman assistant coaches in the league. She shares that title with Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive line coach Lori Locust.

Randy Jordan only has appraisal for Jennifer and her work.

 

First of all, she knows the game.

It’s really helped me in terms of seeing the game in a different view…When we first started, I leaned on her a lot in terms of the terminology and the different things.

Then, the way she’s worked with the guys, she’s just Coach King to us.

Her input throughout the game, there are things I may not see, and she’ll point it out to me…Her input is very, very important not only to me, but to the entire staff.

She’s been doing a heck of a job.

 

Jennifer King has spent plenty of time prior soaking up the game of football. From 2006 to 2019 she had been a player in the Women’s Football Alliance. She was a seven-time All-American quarterback, wide receiver and safety for three different teams within her playing career. While she was playing football, she was coaching Division II collegiate women’s basketball teams.

She started as an assistant coach at Greensboro College, where they won five conference titles and appeared in the NCAA tournament five times. Then she got the opportunity to be the head coach at Johnson & Wales University Charlotte. In 2018, They captured the USCAA Division II National Championship and Jennifer was named the USCAA Division II National Coach of the Year.

Her coaching resume clearly didn’t stop there. After participating in several NFL coaching clinics, she was invited to the 2018 NFL Women’s Career in Football Forum. From there she got involved as the intern wide receiver and running backs coach for the Carolina Panthers. She also held assistant offensive coaching positions for Dartmouth College and the Arizona Hotshots.

Ron Rivera was the head coach of the Carolina Panthers during Jennifer’s term with the team. Ron Rivera is the current head coach of the Washington Football Team.

Clearly he has taken notice of Jennifer’s talent.

 

She is a hard worker, a great communicator and a quality person.
Coach King is always eager to learn and has shown tremendous growth since starting here last season…the sky truly is the limit for her.

 

Coach King is an advocate for women in sports and the feature below brings that ideology further to light.

 

Being the first Black female full-time NFL coach is super special to me, and it’s very important for me to do a good job and just to be a good role model and a symbol of representation.

I think it’s important to have diversity in football as it’s important to have diversity everywhere.

There’s so many different points of view and backgrounds, and people bring different ideas to the table that are important. It was interesting to see so many playoff teams last season had women involved on their staff.

 

The Washington Football Team may have lost 27-17 to the Eagles, but they have won with another sign of progression.

Congrats to Jennifer King.

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