Dr. Jen Welter ‘blown away’ at coaching opportunity with Arizona Cardinals
Jul 28, 2015, 2:32 PM | Updated: Jul 29, 2015, 11:26 am
Despite constantly breaking down expectations and boundaries, Dr. Jen Welter didn’t expect this.
Welter, who was hired Monday as a preseason intern for the Arizona Cardinals, spoke with Bickley and Marotta of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM about being the first female coach in NFL history.
She was coaching for the Texas Revolution of Champions Indoor Football when she found out the news.
“I was coaching for the Texas Revolution and (Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians) made the comment that he could see a female coaching in the NFL,” Welter said. “It was that call that prompted my head coach, Devin Wyman from the Texas Revolution to extend the knowledge to Bruce there was actually a girl coaching.
“A couple of weeks later, I walked into practice and here there is, Devin Wyman. He is about 6-foot-8 and just a giant, awesome human being and he has the biggest smile on his face and he said, ‘You’ll never guess who I talked to last night.’ I’m looking at him like, ‘Coach, I have no idea.’ It’s 5:30 in the morning, my brain isn’t even on yet. He says, ‘I talked to Bruce Arians and he said, ‘Tell me about this girl you got, coach.'”
Welter said she was “blown away” at the opportunity to become the first female coach in NFL history.
“What a progressive, fantastic organization there is here in the Cardinals,” Welter said. “Obviously Bruce saw it, but for him to see something and believe that it was possible is one thing, but without the right organization, it can’t happen.”
Becoming an NFL coach is just one of several barriers Welter has broken in her career.
“In terms of historical significance, it just shows that anything is possible,” she said. “It really does show that there are people believe that talent is not a matter of gender. It’s a matter of what you bring to the table.”
