With two prolific offenses and two dominating defenses taking the field at Super Bowl LIV, there’s the potential for history to be made. Though, history will definitely be made the moment a certain 49ers coach takes her place on the sidelines.
Katie Sowers, an offensive assistant coach for San Francisco, will become not only the first female but also the first openly gay person to ever coach at the Super Bowl. Sowers has coached in the NFL for the past four years, and is only the second full-time female coach hired by an NFL club. She entered the league under the Bill Walsh Minority Fellowship program, an initiative which seeks to increase the number of minority coaches in the NFL.
According to CBS:
Sowers is also an athlete herself. She was a member of the 2013 U.S. Women’s National Football team and played in the Women’s Football alliance for eight years. She graduated with a masters degree in kinesiology, from the University of Central Missouri in 2012, according to her biography.
The NFL has had a few female coaches since 2015, including Kelsey Martinez, strength and conditioning coach with the Oakland Raiders in 2018, reports CBS San Francisco.
Despite being a historically significant figure in professional football, Sowers says she wants to be known for her coaching.
“When you ask any of the coaches who work with me, often they’ll get asked about working with a female,” she told People magazine. “To them, it’s not even something that they think about — and it’s not something that I truly think about. They see me for who I am as a coach, and not a female coach.”
Sowers played professional football in the Women’s Football Alliance, and was a member of the U.S. Women’s National Football Team. The Chiefs will take on the 49ers in the Super Bowl on February 2nd.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn
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