A new woman in football spotlighted every week — plus the women and LGBTQ+ people who did it first.
Women in Football
One woman inside the league, spotlighted every week — coaching, running front offices, breaking down film, officiating and shaping the culture. Every story here is publicly reported.
Woman of the Week · week of September 22
Kelly Kleine Van Calligan
Executive director of football operations · Front office
What that actually means
She runs the machinery behind the roster: scouting trips, the draft board, who gets evaluated and how.
How she got in
She started as a scouting intern with Minnesota and rose to become, when Denver hired her in 2021, the highest-ranking woman on an NFL football operations staff at the time.
Why we love her
She watches more college film in a week than most of us watch TV in a year.
A position coach — she runs the drills and the film sessions for her group all week, then signals plays on Sunday.
She played professional women's football and coached college basketball, then worked her way up through NFL internships. In 2021 she became the first Black woman hired as a full-time NFL assistant coach.
💗 She coached running backs — the position that has to block, catch and carry — which means she was teaching grown men how to protect the quarterback.
The coach who fills in anywhere — she has run the tight ends and the receivers in actual games.
She played in the Women's Football Alliance, coached at Dartmouth, and in 2020 became the first woman to coach an NFL position group during a game when the Browns' tight ends coach couldn't travel.
💗 She did it twice in one season, at two different positions, with basically no notice. That is the definition of unbothered.
One of the people who decides which players the team signs, trades and drafts — and makes the contracts work under the salary cap.
A lawyer and accountant by training, she moved from the CFL to the Eagles and then to Cleveland, becoming the highest-ranking woman in NFL football operations.
💗 She's fluent in the two least glamorous languages in football — tax law and the salary cap — and uses both to win.
She runs the machinery behind the roster: scouting trips, the draft board, who gets evaluated and how.
She started as a scouting intern with Minnesota and rose to become, when Denver hired her in 2021, the highest-ranking woman on an NFL football operations staff at the time.
💗 She watches more college film in a week than most of us watch TV in a year.
The boss. She owns the franchise and hires the people who run it.
She took over as principal owner of the Detroit Lions in 2020 and overhauled the front office and coaching staff — the team went from a league punchline to a contender.
💗 She inherited a mess and fixed it with hires nobody else was brave enough to make.
She's on the field during the game, getting injury news and coach reactions in real time.
She has been reporting NFL games from the sideline since the 1990s — one of the longest careers of anyone doing it, and she made the job look essential.
💗 Every sideline reporter who came after her is walking a path she cleared. She's still out there.
Another of the people in stripes making the calls on the field.
She joined the NFL officiating roster in 2021 as the first Black woman to officiate an NFL game — while also teaching health and physical education in public schools.
💗 A full-time teacher who officiates in the NFL on weekends. The stamina.
She coached the receivers and the passing game — the part of the offense that throws the ball.
She played professional women's football, joined the 49ers staff, and in 2020 became the first woman and the first openly gay person to coach in a Super Bowl.
💗 She made history twice in one game and talked about it like it was normal. Because it should be.
The women and LGBTQ+ people who got there first — coaching, officiating, playing and on the sidelines. Every story here is publicly reported, and every link goes to their own posts.
Pride & Blush 🏳️🌈
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Katie Sowers
First woman and first openly gay coach in a Super Bowl
Coached offense for the 49ers and reached Super Bowl LIV in 2020. She was out publicly while she did it, which nobody in an NFL coaching role had done before.
Announced it publicly in 2021 while playing defensive end, and donated to The Trevor Project the same day. He played in a regular-season game that season — another first.