“When I graduated, I went to see him, and he really tried and he liked me, but he couldn’t think of one thing a woman could do in the NFL.”
That, of course, was decades ago. Now, as Haslam emphasized, there are women making impacts at every level of the league — from interns to scouts to coaches to aides to trainers to the executive office to the ownership suites. Indeed, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Tennessee, Chicago, New Orleans and San Francisco also either have female owners or women making key decisions at the highest team levels.
The league office has a similar makeup at every step of the ladder.
“The mountain of women in the room now who are ownership, it continues to grow and really is exciting,” Haslam said. “There are some young women in the room, which is fantastic.
“As more and more women are out there and doing the job at such a competent level, it is just going to continue to grow. Just getting your foot in the door, especially in the NFL, is what you need to start out doing. Whatever job comes your way, do it better than anybody in the room, and other opportunities will come your way.”
Hamp noted how the lines of communications need to be open regardless of the job or the people involved. As an example, she noticed that the Lions didn’t have a changing room for some women on the football staff. She quickly fixed that.