Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians announced last month that he planned on hiring women for his team’s staff — he made good on that promise Wednesday.
The Buccaneers became the first NFL team with two female coaches on their staff when the team announced the additions of Maral Javadifar as an assistant strength and conditioning coach and Lori Locust as an assistant defensive line coach, USA Today reported.
We've added Maral Javadifar and Lori Locust as full-time assistant coaches.
The Buccaneers are now the first NFL team with two female coaches on staff.
📰 » https://t.co/mVkzSWa96N pic.twitter.com/QOUSyxPKbP
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) March 20, 2019
By sticking to what he said at the Women’s Careers in Football Forum, Arians’ squad made NFL history.
“I know how hard it can be to get that first opportunity to coach at the highest level of professional football,” Arians said in a statement. “Sometimes, all you need is the right organization to offer up the opportunity.”
Locust will join the Bucs from the Alliance of American Football where she was a defensive line coach for the Birmingham Iron. In 2018, she served as a defensive coaching intern for the Baltimore Ravens during training camp after playing four years of women’s semi-pro football.
Javadifar, a physical therapist in Seattle, also played college basketball for Pace University in New York City.
This isn’t the first time Arians saw value in adding a woman to his staff. The former Arizona Cardinals head coach hired Jen Welter to the team as an assistant coaching intern in 2015 — the first time a woman was hired to an assistant coaching position in the NFL.
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