Jennifer King has been named the first Black female as a football coach for the Washington Football Team in the NFL.
What We Know:
- Jennifer King was a full-time coaching intern for Randy Jordan and the Washington Football team before being promoted as the Assistant Running Back Coach full-time. As an intern for the 2020 season, King coached running backs and wide receivers. Before interning with Washington, King previously had experience working with coach Ron Rivera and offensive coordinator Scott Turner with the Carolina Panthers in 2018 and 2019.
Washington Football Team Names Jennifer King (@JenniferKing5) as Assistant Running Backs Coach pic.twitter.com/rCmHoV9gdK
— Washington Football Public Relations (@Wash_PR) January 26, 2021
- King served as an offensive assistant for Dartmouth College. She also has experience in the now-defunct Alliance of American Football (AAF), spending time with the Arizona Hotshots as an assistant wide receivers coach. Aside from coaching Football, King was the head coach of Johnson & Wales University Charlotte women’s basketball team from 2016 to 2018 — guiding them to the USCAA Division II national championship. Before that, she served as a basketball assistant with Greensboro College.
- For 12 seasons, the North Carolina native played quarterback and wide receiver for the Carolina Phoenix in the Woman’s Football Alliance. She continued to play in the league even after breaking into coaching, joining the New York Sharks and D.C. Divas in 2018 and 2019. King met Rivera for the first time in February 2018 at the NFL’s Women’s Careers in Football Forum. Hiring her that spring, Rivera said he realized that women coaching were an “untapped source” of talent. Jordan said King helped him see the game from a different perspective, and she’s seen as Coach King to everyone.
- King is the first African American female assistant position coach in NFL history and the second female assistant position coach in the league, behind Tampa Bay Buccaneers assistant defensive line coach Lori Locust. In addition, Callie Brownson was recently hired as Chief of Staff under Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski. The franchise is the only team in the NFL to have a minority coach (Rivera), general manager (Martin Mayhew), and team president (Jason Wright). All three hirings came within the last 12 months.
- In a press release from the team, Rivera called King “a hard worker, a great communicator, and a quality person.” Washington had a late-season surge to win the NFC East, highlighted by a victory against the previously unbeaten Pittsburgh Steelers.
King will work directly under running backs coach Randy Jordan after doing so for much of last season. Washington’s offense racked up over 1,600 rushing yards in 2020 with 18 touchdowns on the ground.
