– BY JUSTINE COLEMAN – (Source: www.thehill.com) -The Washington Football Team named Jennifer King as its assistant running backs coach on Tuesday, making her the NFL’s first Black female assistant position coach.
King will join the full-time coaching staff after spending the 2020 season as a coaching intern under head coach Ron Rivera, during which she assisted running backs coach Randy Jordan, the franchise announced.
King will be the second woman in the NFL to take on an assistant position coach role after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Lori Locust became an assistant defensive line coach in 2019.
Rivera called King “deserving” of the role in a released statement, saying she came to D.C. “eager for the opportunity to work as a full-year coaching intern and learn from our staff.”
“She got the chance to experience not only the in-season work that goes into being a full-time coach in this league but also the countless hours that are spent preparing in the offseason as well,” he said.
“The sky is truly the limit for her,” he added.
During the 2020 season, King worked with a running back group that had 423 attempts for 1,697 yards and 20 rushing touchdowns.
The new assistant coach previously interned with the Carolina Panthers during the offseason in 2018 and 2019. She also worked as an offensive assistant at Dartmouth College, mostly focusing on the wide receivers.
She also coached women’s basketball as the head coach of Johnson & Wales University Charlotte for two years.
The playoff game between Washington and the Buccaneers, who are now set to play in the Super Bowl, was the first in which both teams had a female coach on the sidelines, The Associated Press noted.
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