For women working in football, it’s a grind and a calling

Kalleigh Burke was in sixth grade when she had a revelation. She was playing catch with her younger cousin in the backyard after watching YouTube videos and telling him she could help him train to play football. While practicing, she realized, “I really like doing this.”

About 10 years later, Burke became Notre Dame football’s student senior manager, where she was primarily responsible for working with the defensive line. During practice, she set up drills and stood in for the scout team in non-contact situations. Outside of practice, Burke handled equipment and gear. On game days, she was the ball person or helped with signal cards.

“Between that and school, I stay pretty busy,” said Burke, who studied Finance and Spanish before graduating this past spring.

In the midst of the NFL’s free agency buzz last March (and just one day after Tom Brady announced that he would return to play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers), Burke was one of 45 women who participated in the NFL’s sixth-annual Women’s Career in Football Forum, which was created by Sam Rapoport, the NFL’s Senior Director of Diversity & Inclusion.

This year’s forum was held virtually and connected women around the country — 64% of whom were women of color — with leaders in professional football.

Over the course of two days, participants engaged in a series of panel discussions, presentations and breakout sessions. Speakers included NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Jane Skinner Goodell, as well as three club owners, eight head coaches and seven general managers.

Most of the women invited work in entry-level football roles. The goal of the forum is to create a pipeline for women who want to work in the NFL so that there may one day be more women on the sidelines and in