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First Black woman NFL coach shares journey through sports

Sydney Moore ’24, left, speaks with Jennifer King, the first Black woman to be named to a full-time NFL coaching staff, May 3 at Newman Arena.
Sydney Moore ’24, left, speaks with Jennifer King, the first Black woman to be named to a full-time NFL coaching staff, May 3 at Newman Arena (Jacob Mroczek/Cornell University).

By Ben Badua, Student and Campus Life

When Jennifer King first attended the National Football League’s Women’s Forum in 2018, every one of the more than 40 women in attendance held jobs outside the sport. When King returned this year – every woman she met already worked in football.

“It just shows the tremendous growth that women have had in this sport,” said King, the featured speaker at “Breaking Barriers: The First Black Woman to Coach in the NFL,” an event held May 3 in Newman Arena.

“That’s something that the other women coaches in the league and I take very seriously,” she said, “just to be great [role] models and be the representation that we didn’t have for the people coming behind us.”

Read the full story on the Cornell Chronicle