To quote the old adage of Taylor Swift, karma is the guy on the Chiefs—or I should say, the guys on the Chiefs. The NFL’s Super Bowl LIX, a historically male-dominated sport, somehow turned into what felt like a great night for women’s rights. The Chiefs’ loss felt like a case of bad karma catching up with them.
It’s hard to forget the Chiefs’ kicker Harrison Butker’s stint as a commencement speaker at Benedictine College. The real “kicker” of his 2024 speech: “I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you,” he said. “Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”
And then we have Jalen Hurts, the Philadelphia Eagles 26-year-old quarterback. Hurts, a very even-keeled player, became passionate and resolute in his rebuttal to Butker’s “women should be homemakers” speech, as he spoke out at the Eagles’ Women’s Football Festival in 2024:
“Women are thrusted into positions to have to overcome this, overcome that, and they lack the respect that they deserve,” he said. “And they always do. Yet they lack the respect they deserve. I’m here advocating for it. Not only in football but in every situation. We all know the woman is the rock of everything.”
Hurts was all smiles as he held the Lombardi trophy in one hand and the Super Bowl MVP trophy in the other after beating the Chiefs 40-22. The Alabama and Oklahoma alumnus broke his own record for the most rushing yards by a QB in Super Bowl history at 72 yards and also completed over 77 percent of his passes that game.
Hurts has made history in another regard, too—he is the first and only NFL player to have an all-female management team, made up of Chantal Romain, Jenna Malphrus, Rachel Everett, Shakeemah Simmons-Winter, and Nicole Lynn, his agent since he exited college football in 2020.
“It’s something that happened very organically,” Hurts said at a February 6 press conference leading up to the game.
“I was really just seeking out the best, and that’s how it happened, and I have a lot of confidence in my team and everyone that supports me,” he said.
As a mid-to-late draft pick leaving college, analysts and the public alike doubted the QB. But Hurts told Sports Illustrated in 2022 that things started moving when he first received a DM from Lynn: “Hey, have you picked an agent? If not, I’d love to link.”
Then, at the Senior Bowl, another male agent told him and his dad, “Hey, if baby girl doesn’t work out, give us a call. She’s sweet, but—you know.”
Hurts told Sports Illustrated that Lynn’s resume, experience, and his trust in her were all that mattered to him: “People are going to doubt her because she’s a woman in this industry,” he said. “There was a sense of doubt. Why is she doing this? Can she represent a quarterback? What’s she going to do with him?”
In 2023, Nicole Lynn negotiated the largest contract in NFL history for Hurts, making him the highest-paid player with a $225 million five-year deal.
That same year, the NFL had a 141 percent increase in the number of women working in full-time coaching or football operations roles, according to AP News. Catherine Raîche, the highest-ranking female executive in the NFL, is now the general manager of the Cleveland Browns and VP of operations, but when she started in her first role with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2019, schools met her with suspicion and requested evidence because they did not believe she was a scout.
A report from UCF’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport found that the percentage of women in the NFL’s league office was increased to 42.5 percent in 2023. Progress is progress, but this is hardly impressive considering 80 million, or half of the NFL’s fan base, are women.
Commercials didn’t shy away from addressing the gender gap, which was refreshing to see. Nike ended its almost 30-year hiatus of having no commercials in the Super Bowl with its “So Win” ad, spotlighting several of today’s top female athletes, like Caitlin Clark, Jordan Chiles, and Sha ‘Carri Richardson.
It’s also no coincidence that Nike’s first Super Bowl ad in 27 years, at an event that is typically culturally centered around men, is promoting women in sports. I think the transcript deserves its own paragraph:
“You can’t be demanding. You can’t be relentless. You can’t put yourself first. So, put yourself first. You can’t be confident. So be confident. You can’t challenge, so challenge. You can’t dominate, so dominate. You can’t flex, so flex. You can’t fill a stadium, so fill that stadium. You can’t be emotional, so be emotional. You can’t take credit. You can’t speak up. You can’t be so ambitious. Break records. You can’t have any fun. You can’t make demands. You can’t be proud. You can’t keep score. You can’t stand out. Whatever you do, you can’t win. So win.”
The longest commercial, “Leave the Past Behind,” came from the NFL, which is working on spreading girls’ flag football to high schools in the US. It’s a clever skit with comedic elements where a female player excels on the field after her male opponents Chad and Brad tell her she can’t play the sport. An article from FOX News said this spurred controversy among “conservative activists” by “promoting imagery of females competing evenly and more superior to males. The notion that female athletes are not at a physical disadvantage compared to their male counterparts is often used in arguments promoting trans inclusion in women’s sports.”
Hurts’ management team wasn’t the only one to make history; Autumn Lockwood, the Eagle’s associate sports performance coach, became the first Black woman coach to win a Super Bowl, and she was the very first Black woman to coach in a Super Bowl in 2023.
Mike Freeman from USAToday shared:
“What moments like this one do is send the message to girls and women, especially girls and women of color, that they can make it to the highest of sports stages. In fact, they belong there.”
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