Jen Welter made history on July 27, 2015, when she was hired by former Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians as a training camp intern, becoming the first woman to coach in the NFL.
RELATED: Women’s History Month: Jen Welter, First Woman To Coach In NFL
She recently did a sideline interview during a New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles preseason game on Saturday. The animated and emotional Welter is now coaching women’s flag football and gave an extensive interview where she expressed her excitement for the rise of flag football as a girls varsity sport.
Fans React To Jen Welter Sideline Interview
Social media reacted to the interview, and the video was captioned by an account, who described it as “wild” and “bonkers”.” Some fans accused Welter of being a bit tipsy during the interview. Many fans have no idea that Welter opened the floodgates for women coaches in the NFL. But they did have plenty to say about Welters’ sideline interview.
“Coaches drink mid game now????,” asked one skeptical fan.
“Ridiculous, the whole NFL has been an embarrassment for the last few years. Will continue to boycott until it’s normal again,” one disturbed netizen wrote.
“Laughable to have a woman Coaching a bunch of grown men,” another fan added.
“Just in case you thought the sh*tty NFL couldn’t get any worse…they give you this dumpster fire!!! Good thing I haven’t watched since the kneeling bs!!!” one user commented on X.
“Thought the bucs have had females on the coaching staff for a while,” said a fan who couldn’t understand the outrage towards Welters interview or history as an NFL coach.
One rant went: “Every major media elaborate in America in someway has some bs way where they push people they want instead of people that actually deserve spots… you got coaches in football that would die to f-cking coach in the NFL and you got sh-t like this that they just give titles to.”
Fans Accuse NFL’s First Woman Coach Jen Welter Of Being DEI Hire
Once the fans figured out that she was a guest on the New England Patriots sideline, the Mike Vrbael jokes emerged.
“Not trying to get her in any trouble, but she’s high as hell lol. We already know the coach a wild boy too,” one fan said.
“Once again DEI has taken an opportunity from a legitimate coach who’s busted HIS ass trying to make it in that field just so the team can say hey look at us we are social justice warriors. What a f*ckn joke,” said some questioning the qualifications of women coaching in the NFL.
“She played running back but coaches linebackers now? She’s just a DEI hire for the Russini scandal I’m sure now they can’t fire her,” another user commented.
Women Coaches In NFL Have Exploded Since Welters Broke Barrier In 2015
Welter is no longer an NFL coach, but most of the fans didn’t take time to research anything she actually does now before responding.
As far as this influx of women coaches in the NFL that seems to be ticking off plenty of men, Welter started it, along with Arians, who also made female hires in 2019 with the Tampa Bay Bucs as well.
By 2023, there were 10 full-season/full-time women coaches in the NFL, according to the NFL’s 2023 Racial and Gender Report Card. That number jumped to 15 in 2024, according to the NFL.
In the 10 years since Welter was hired, the landscape for women in the NFL has totally shifted. Last season, there were 15 women on NFL coaching staffs, according to the league.
“It was larger than life, and yet so normal,” Welter said at the time. “The idea of it was bigger than I could have ever dreamed possible as a little girl who remembered somebody telling me, ‘Girls don’t do that.’ …
“For us, it was so normal, but for the rest of the world, it was something that they had never seen before, and so many people were certain that it would fail.”
As of August 2024, the number of women in coaching and football operations within the NFL has increased 187 percent, according to league statistics. And the number of women in just football operations has grown 185 percent.