Boston College Grad Becomes First Female NFL Coach

What has mostly been a man's world now has a woman in the ranks.

Jen Welter, the first woman to have the title of coach in the NFL, is joining the Arizona Cardinals as an intern coach for training camp and the pre-season.

A lot of the skills that she will need in this new role came from her time in Boston, where she played rugby at Boston College for four years and then played for the Massachusetts Mutiny, now known as the Boston Renegades.

"Boston Women's Football is proud to watch Jen continue breaking barriers for women in sports," the team told necn.

Her legacy is proving to be an inspiration for current students at Boston College.

Shannon Johnson said, "I'm studying for the bar exam, it's tomorrow so I can kind of sympathize with being in kind of a male driven profession and it think that really embracing the talents that women bring to traditionally male dominated fields is really important."

This isn't the first time Welter has broken down barriers.

She was also the first female running back on a men's team when she played arena football for the Texas Revolution.

Before her, women had only been kickers.

She then went on to coach the Revolution, which was another first.

Boston College Student Meghan McEachren said, "I would hope that negative energy doesn't get thrown at her specifically because she's the only woman there."

In Arizona, Welter, at 5'2", 130 pounds, will coach linebackers. 

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