Yahoo Sports Report: Jennifer King to become NFL's first Black female full-time assistant coach in Washington
After spending last season as a full-year intern, Jennifer King is set to make history in Washington.
Washington Football Team coach Ron Rivera is planning to hire King as a full-time offensive assistant, which will make her the first Black woman assistant in the NFL, according to the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and The Athletic.
Important development in Washington: Jennifer King is going to become a full-time offensive assistant for the WFT, source said. She spent the last year as a coaching intern.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 22, 2021
It’s unclear specifically where King will work on Rivera’s staff.
King first served as an intern under Rivera with the Carolina Panthers for four months ahead of the 2017 season. She then joined the Dartmouth College staff as an offensive assistant in 2019 after a short stint as an assistant in the Alliance of American Football before the league shut down. She was one of three female assistants in the AAF, and the only offensive one.
King is one of a handful of female coaches in the league. Lori Locust and Maral Javadifar are full-time assistants with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Before leaving the San Francisco 49ers earlier this month, Katie Sowers spent the past four seasons with the team and was the league’s first openly gay coach and the first woman to coach in the Super Bowl.
Cleveland Browns chief of staff Callie Brownson was briefly promoted earlier this season for a game when she replaced tight ends coach Drew Petzing after his wife gave birth, making Brownson the first woman to serve as a position coach in NFL history.
The Washington Football Team went 7-9 last season, Rivera’s first with the organization. Despite the losing record, they still won the NFC East and reached the playoffs for the first time since the 2015 season. The organization is reportedly set to hire Martin Mayhew as its next general manager.
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