Dr.Jennifer Welter| 1st women to coach in the NFL

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Additional terms apply. You may know the name Jen Welter. She was the first female coach in the NFL. She actually got hired by Bruce Arians to work on his staff with the Arizona Cardinals, and that goes back almost a decade ago. I ran into her at Super Bowl 50 in San Francisco, and she was just becoming a name that was worthy of buzz. A lot has changed for Jen since then, and it was really cool to be able to catch up with her on Radio Row.

I actually said that to her. It's been a long time. 2015 in San Francisco was when we met for the first time. You had just finished up with the Cardinals. Now Bruce Arians is out of the league, and my goodness, my life has changed. How much has your life changed since then, Jen? I don't know if Bruce is ever going to be out of the league. You might say retired, but I think he's still very active with Tampa Bay. My life is the same and different. It's still very much football-focused.

It's just in what capacity. I do a lot of designing, programming to make the game more inclusive, whether it be girls and women, like girls through my Gridiron Girls nonprofit, where we've done 60 free girls camps across the country to date, or A Day in the Life, where we bring women onto the field and into the game by teaching them the game of football. I also work with Snoop Special Stars, where we create first camps, and then we ended up starting a league for kids with special needs. It's really important to me that we open up the playbook and open up the access and opportunity to this game, because this is the game that changed my world.

I say this sometimes on my show. There is very little in this world that brings people together. In the United States, we can't agree on anything except football. It continues to grow. Why do you think it's so popular and so appealing outside of just the football fraternity?

I think the game itself is a game that fundamentally requires diversity to work. Okay, who's your favorite player? My favorite player right now?

That's a good question. Ooh, I want to go away from quarterback. I don't even know about Cam Hayward. Okay, Cam Hayward.

Great player. Yes. Can you win if you had 11 Cam Heywards? No. There's no player that you can take that you didn't want just one, or maybe four or five, right? Four or five at the max. If you give me four or five Tyree kills, I'm going to run spread, and I'm going to crush you with speed all day, right? But I can't have 11 Tyree kills, right?

I can run an 0-0 offense, go spread, or even throw him back at running back, and yeah, you're going to have trouble. But I also need the trenches, and so it's a sport where really what makes you different makes you special. And on the field and in the locker room, we see that. It brings us together. I'm the woman that I am now, today, in this world with my love of diversity because of every woman and man that I've played with, domestic and abroad, every woman and man that I've coached or been coached by, domestic and abroad, or competed against, because this game shows you what someone's about.

When someone will go in, let's say, use check, right? Take that full back position where you're fully running through and taking the biggest hit that somebody's got to not always be the one who gets the glory but to open a hole so one of your teammates will run through. That guy, I don't just want on my football team. I want to know him as a person because I already know the core of the person. The rest is just details, right?

Great human, great ballplayer. Now I just want to know, like, okay, what's your favorite color, right? Like, I want to know more about you. But we already have this turf that's our common turf. And I think if we did more things in the world that way, right, if we met people first how they are and then asked them their opinions, we would get to a lot better places with people. But so many times we first meet somebody's opinion and we don't even know the core of who they are or how they operate or if they truly run a lead block for somebody because that tells you a lot.

I can tell a lot of what I need to know about a person by how they play this game. The NFL makes a big deal about trying to expand its diversity. They've got the Rooney Rule.

They hail more and more women who are working. You've been in the locker room. You've been on the field.

How would you evaluate the way the league is expanding and attracting diversity? I mean, you know, it's so hard, right? Like, if you look at where we are at any one day, they say patience is a virtue, right? Clearly, I have lost mine. I'm not sure I ever had any. Right?

Like, I'm not sure I ever had any. And I'd be like, really? That's virtuous? This is how we're defining virtue now?

Oh, my goodness, I'm in such trouble. Because do we want it to be better? Of course we do.

We want it not just in football, but we want it in the world. Women aren't making the same money in any area of the world, right? So are we happy with that where we are right now? No. But are we making progress?

We are. And so would I like more? Yes.

Of course I would. But do I think that we're doing a great job? Well, let's look at it this way. Ten years ago, could you even talk about a woman coaching in the NFL? No. Didn't exist.

She didn't. And now there are so many examples of these amazing women who are, you know, not only blazing trails in the NFL, but like, you know, just in so many areas, right? Like, you know, you see women coaching college, right? You see, like, Katie and Liz Sowers crushing it at Ottawa, right?

Katie and Liz weren't a part of the conversation ten years ago, right? We see Callie Brunson, Jennifer King, Lo Locus, women doing the damn thing in the NFL. And we have to be proud at where they are and consistently look at ways that we can continue to perpetuate change.

So the fact that the league is proactively looking to do that, that's the money shot, right? And we can't ever say that we're satisfied because then we'll stop working, right? Like, if we say, yeah, it's good, then that's when things slow down and go the other way. So we need to keep pushing forward and also be really proud of how far we've come. Dr. Jen Welter, back on Radio Row. It's so great to connect with you again.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. It's not easy to be the first at anything. What was it like for you to be the first?

I think the hardest thing about being the first is that, first of all, there's no roadmap, right? And I look at my own career and even some of the decisions that I made and I think, gosh, I could have done that better had I known. And at the same time, at the same time, I have to give myself some grace because I didn't know. And the people who I grew up in the game with didn't know either. I am the woman that I am because of the strong backbone and motivation of the women in football.

They drive me forward, but they weren't there either, right? A lot of the guys, the advantage that they have is they've got that locker room or they've got that fraternity, right? And so they can call so-and-so or so-and-so knows such-and-such and they can build on that.

I didn't have that. All I had to do was think like, OK, well, maybe this or, you know, talk to somebody like Nancy Lieberman in basketball and be like, sis, what do I do? And do the best that I could that way. So I think that's what's really challenging when we look at advancement for women or being the first is that lack of role model and maybe mentorship. Now, obviously, like I try and challenge myself to be the woman that I needed and didn't have.

But it would have been really nice to also have that woman. You are preaching to the choir, girl. I hear you. So you have these camps that you mentioned, and I know you're doing a couple here in Las Vegas. I'm really intrigued by the one that you titled A Day in the Life. How much do you see women and girls get into that? That must be so cool. So A Day in the Life is 21 plus. Ladies, I love the girls, but they stay home on this day.

This one is for you. So for the ladies or for the husbands, boyfriends, whatever, this is the best day. Guys, if you like watching football and you'd like your lady to understand it, send her to me. It's almost Valentine's Day. There's nothing better than your lady taking her XOXO love of football and dropping that X's and O's game day knowledge. So you should invest in sending her. I think it'd be a great Valentine's Day present.

Ladies, if you don't have that or he doesn't buy in, buy it for yourself, because you will be a better date when you understand the X's and O's, I promise you. But for me, it's we're going to take these women in. They get to come out on my field, have some beverages, which will either hydrate you or dehydrate you, depending on which beverage you choose. I'm just saying we're after dark right now. We can have that conversation. We should be cheersing ourselves, or maybe we are. It's radio and you don't know. And then we'll have breakfast, and then we hit the field starting with coach intros. We have an amazing, I feel like a really good head coach right now. You know, head coaching is all about collecting talent.

When I tell you I've been collecting talent, like I'm just going to name drop a little bit because I'm like rolling my sleeves up, y'all, if you didn't know. Because I mean, when I say I have like, I don't know, pro bull punter Mark White King, who's going to teach the ladies how to punt. I have all-time Green Bay Packers leading rusher Iman Green.

Awesome. I have 49ers legend Ricky Waters. I also have, you know, we can't just talk about men. I would be remiss if I didn't say I have my two-time gold medal winning sister.

We used to play against each other, and then we became teammates on Team USA. Yes, we have the rings to prove it. We got two gold rings, y'all. Adrian Smith. Then we have Lois Cook, who is a DC diva. And I don't mean just in life, like she actually plays for them too. And one of the bright up-and-coming content creators and just amazing humans and a heck of a wide receiver coming.

So we have this collection of fantastic men and women. And then, of course, you know, we got DJ Lexi, who's going to have the tunes right all day. Like, this is a party with football, right?

It's come out, coach centros, so you get to meet everybody. And then playbook, you're going to get an install. So in a day in the life of a player at training camp, when you come in, you get an install. And those are the plays that we're going to install that day as coaches. They're going to get a base install, so we're going to learn a couple of defenses, a couple of run plays, pass plays, so you learn how to read a playbook. Okay, then we'll transition into a dynamic warm-up, got to get you warm.

Then we'll go station rotation where you learn each position. Let's use the big boys, for example, okay? Let's talk about how we read football on defense. You don't look at the quarterback.

His pretty face is a lie. Quarterback's job is to misdirect you. He's to bring you in, right?

Run, pass, option. He's waiting for where you mess up, and he's going to go opposite. His job is to be a liar. He's cute, but he's that boy you don't want to date.

Ladies, you do not want to date the quarterback. He is a lie. The truth is in the trenches.

The big boys in the trenches are the ones who tell you the truth. They come forward. It's a run play. They kick-step backwards.

You're not doing that for no reason, right? It's a pass play. So when you come to the O-line station, we're going to teach you how to run block and a pass block, so when you see it on Sundays, you'll be like, oh, it's a run. It's a pass. And we put all of those positions together, and then we'll run offense on air and defense on air, so you get to see how the plays come together.

Then, of course, we'll have more beverages that will either hydrate you or dehydrate you, I'm just saying, and some food to round out the day. Oh, sounds like fun. And how do people find out more? I want to find out more.

That's amazing. Yeah, so you can find out any information on my website, which is jenwelter.com. You can also go to my Instagram, welter47, see some of the talented men and women.

I only gave you a few of them. I only dropped a few names for you all, and you can also buy tickets either right on jenwelter.com or on my Instagram. Very cool. Well, it's great to connect with you again. Yes, me too.

You have remained busy. I see your name and hear your name every now and then in football circles. Do you feel like you're a part of this? Even though, as you point out, you were the first, but being here with the NFL convention of sorts, does it feel like a home to you a little bit when you run into people? It's always a home. They say the home is where the heart is. The home is where the locker room is, and this is my locker room.

The people in and around the game, that's family. You know, I walked in, the first person I saw was none other than Hall of Famer Warren Moon, and he said, Coach, I may come see you Saturday. I'm like, I know you got the best of the girls in Vegas coming. Can I come out and coach the girls? I'm like, yes, Hall of Famer. Like, yes, please come coach the girls with me, and that's what home is.

Home is always about people, and it's the place where you feel loved and welcomed, and any time I'm in football circles, that's love for me. Well, I'm excited to connect with you again, Dr. Jen Welter, first among the women to coach in the NFL. It's so great to have you here on Radio Road. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

It's great to have you here. A peanut butter M&M's production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring, but the runners-up get nothing, one retired cop returns... That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. Um, that's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter, but you're on a roll. The Ring of Comfort, coming soon to a Super Bowl new you.