Ten years before Catherine Raîche became the highest-ranking woman on an NFL team, she was a scout for the Canadian Football League.
At the time, few women were paid to evaluate soccer players, a job that took Ms. Raîche across the continent in search of talent. In a few cases, she said, when she arrived at a college or training camp, team members would ask her for her business card to confirm her identity.
“When people asked me: ‘Where is the scout?’, I replied: ‘Well, it’s me,’” said Ms. Raîche, 34.
Raîche, now assistant general manager and vice president of football operations for the Cleveland Browns, is part of a wave of women who have recently arrived in professional football, taking on roles previously reserved for men. As their numbers increase, women use their own networks to navigate a male world that is just beginning to open up to them.
After Jen Welter became the NFL’s first female assistant coach in 2015, Katie Sowers was the first to play that role at a Super Bowl in 2020. In 2021, referee Sarah Thomas was the first woman to officer during the Super Bowl.
According to the NFL, the league has 10 female assistant coaches and nearly 70 women in technical roles — scouting, drafting and player development.
“It’s great that there’s so much interest today,” said Connie Carberg, 72, whom the New York Jets hired in 1974 as a secretary and was later promoted to scout, a first in the NFL.
For those who dream of being a general manager or head coach, entry-level positions are most often scout or assistant coach. Nearly 75 percent of current NFL GMs — those who oversee player contracts, the draft, trades and other major decisions — started out as scouts, evaluating college and professional players by studying video, attending games and at practices and interviewing coaches about an athlete’s character.
According to Scott Pioli, former general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs and former personnel executive for the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons, hiring for these entry-level positions was marked by racial and gender discrimination, as well. than through nepotism. Coaches and administrators often gave these positions to their sons, the sons of their friends or ex-NFL players.
“One of the fascinating things I’ve heard a lot over the years is, ‘Will this affect me or my son?’ “, says Pioli, now an analyst for the NFL Network. ““I want my son to be a training camp intern, I want my son to be a ball handler.” OK, but your daughter? »
The NFL is increasingly opening up to women in football personnel positions, but it has also been accused of discriminating against some female employees. The attorneys general of New York and California announced a joint investigation into the matter in May.
Raîche was hired in May 2022, two months after the Browns acquired quarterback Deshaun Watson from the Houston Texans, whom more than 20 women accused of coercion and sexual misconduct during massage appointments.
According to Ms Raîche, managing director Andrew Berry had informed her of the research carried out by the team and an independent lawyer before offering Watson a contract. Berry had been Raîche’s boss when they worked for the Philadelphia Eagles, where Raîche started as coordinator of football operations in 2019, before being promoted to vice president of football operations.
“I had full confidence in the owners and Andrew’s plan and the due diligence and all the work that they had done with their respective teams to make this acquisition,” Raîche said. I really had no worries when I arrived, given all the work that had been done to ensure that we left no stone unturned. »
The NFL has attempted to establish pathways for women. In 2022, the NFL included women in a regulation that requires teams to interview minority candidates for executive positions. And since 2017, the NFL has hosted the Women’s Careers in Football Forum, where women working on college and professional teams are connected with hiring managers.
But women have also developed their own support networks. Three years ago, Raîche and Ameena Soliman, the Eagles’ director of personnel, created a WhatsApp chat group for women pursuing careers in the NFL. They use group texting to post jobs, celebrate promotions, and ask questions about dress codes at certain events. As of August, the group had 129 members, including women in various roles unrelated to coaching positions.
Burnett was hired in 2020 after two seasons with the Atlanta Falcons to evaluate players from 13 Midwest and Northwest states. She lives in Denver, and during peak periods she spends an average of 20 days a month on the road. The scouting’s peripatetic life keeps her away from her colleagues at Giants Stadium, where she goes about five times a year for training camp and pre-draft meetings.
Over time, Raîche noted that most participants held entry-level positions. Soliman (who did not wish to collaborate on this article) and she brainstormed ways to provide career development opportunities. They organize video calls every three months, during which we discuss general topics like their professional journey as women, scouting vocabulary or even what shorts to wear to training camp in the summer heat.
Ms. Soliman launched a mentoring program pairing newbies with experienced colleagues.
“I felt there was a lack of a way for women to communicate across the league. Plus, we felt like we didn’t know who we all were, says Ms. Raîche. We wanted to ensure that once in the league, we could encourage progression through the hierarchy. »
Ms. Burnett was not paired with a mentor in the focus group. First, there were very few female scouts at the time, she said. And then, she had as a confidante Kelly Kleine Van Calligan, director of football operations for the Denver Broncos, who herself had been a scout for the Minnesota Vikings. They both live near Denver.
Ms. Burnett is now a mentor to Kasia Omilian, a scout for the Indianapolis Colts since 2021. They try to talk on the phone every two weeks. The first few years on the road can be stressful, Burnett says, so she offers her support.
“Often, in this job, you internalize, you deal with what happens and you move on. So I try to be a sympathetic ear, to give him my opinion, in short, to do everything I can to make his life a little easier. »
