Katie Sowers to be first female, openly gay coach at Super Bowl 54
At this year's Super Bowl — when the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers take the field — many will be watching the sideline for Katie Sowers to make history. Sowers, an offensive assistant coach with the 49ers, will become the first female and openly gay person to be calling the shots during football's biggest game.
Sowers is no stranger to breaking barriers, however. She was just the second woman hired as a full-time coach for an NFL team and the first openly LGBTQ coach in the league's history, the Washington Post reports. She came out publicly in 2017 as a lesbian in the publication Outsports.
"No matter what you do in life, one of the most important things is to be true to who you are," she said at the time, according to the outlet. "There are so many people who identify as LGBT in the NFL, as in any business, that do not feel comfortable being public about their sexual orientation."
Sowers, who has spent four seasons in the NFL, joined the 49ers as part of the 2017 Bill Walsh Minority Fellowship — a program aimed to increase the amount of full-time NFL minority coaches in the league, according to her 49ers biography.
The coach has spoken regularly about the importance of representation and was recently featured in an emotional Microsoft ad for its Surface Pro 7 device that ran during the Golden Globes earlier this month, reports CBS San Francisco. In the 30-second spot, she read a note she wrote as a child — in which she penned that she hoped to "be on a real football team."
"I'm not just here to be the token female, I'm here to help us win," she said in the inspiring clip, as footage of her coaching the 49ers played in the background. "I would want to tell this little girl to keep pushing yourself — your dream's coming. "
Biden reacts to CBS News question about Sanders feud: "Calm down, it's OK"
Blake Shelton on bringing back the mullet and being named People Magazine's “Sexiest Man Alive”
