By Brian Walsh
The Arizona Cardinals (click here) just made one of the biggest splashes of the NFL off-season.
Dr. Jen Welter, a collegiate rugby player who played 14 seasons of pro football in the Women’s Football Alliance, was picked by head coach Bruce Arians as a training camp intern to coach the teams linebackers, becoming the first women to hold a coaching position in the history of the NFL.
“Coaching is nothing more than teaching,” Arians said in a statement Monday. “I really believe she’ll have a great opportunity with this internship through training camp to open some doors for her.”
Despite not having any ties to the NFL, Welter has an extremely long history with football. A graduate of Boston College with a master’s in sport psychology and a PhD in psychology, Welter became the first woman to play in men’s professional football game in a non-kicker position in 2014 when she took the field for the Texas Revolution – a team in the Indoor Football League. After her debut, she went on to be an assistant coach for the Revolution....
