While Kendrick Lamar slayed Drake during the Super Bowl halftime show last Sunday, a Philadelphia Eagles coach was inside the locker room, ensuring players were healthy and finished the game strong. After the Eagles’ dominating first-half performance, associate performance coach Autumn Lockwood wanted her players to be prepared for a second-half response from the Kansas City Chiefs.
The response never came, sending Lockwood’s Eagles to the podium to lift the Lombardi Trophy.
Lockwood was the first African American woman to coach in a Super Bowl when she took the field with the Eagles in 2023. The Eagles lost to the Chiefs that year. However, after the Eagles beat the Chiefs this year, Coach Lockwood can call herself the first African American woman to win a Super Bowl.
Lockwood entered the National Football League (NFL) in 2019, joining the Atlanta Falcons as an intern for their strength and conditioning program. She joined the Eagles in 2022 as a strength and conditioning associate before moving into her current position.
According to Sports Illustrated: “Only two black women have NFL coaching roles – Jennifer King (Chicago Bears) and Autumn Lockwood (Eagles). King was the first black woman to have a full-time assistant coach position in the National Football League.”
The NFL’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) program created opportunities for marginalized individuals. Historically, white men have led NFL teams, with an occasional African American rising to the level of a coaching or front-office position. Since the league takes DEI seriously, more opportunities have emerged for people of color and women.
“We got into diversity efforts because we felt it was the right thing for the National Football League, and we’re going to continue to do those efforts,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told Forbes Magazine. “We’re not in this because it’s a trend to get into it or a trend to get out of it.”
Goodell added that diversity “reflects our fan base and our communities and our players.” The commissioner’s words seem to be true.
The Eagles victory in this year’s Super Bowl inspired Essence magazine to write: “Her (Lockwood’s) groundbreaking victory represents a seismic shift in a league that has long struggled with representation. In a sport where coaching staffs have been overwhelmingly male and white, Lockwood’s success carves a path forward for Black women aspiring to break barriers in professional football.”
Lockwood’s rise offers a positive example of how DEI and hard work pay off for everyone involved: coach, players, team, league and fans. Coach Lockwood has worked tirelessly to get to where she is.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Arizona University before earning a master’s degree in sports management from East Tennessee State University. Furthermore, she worked as an intern and graduate assistant for the school’s basketball and football programs.
Lockwood is a bonafide professional.
However, the NFL seemed an unachievable dream because of the league’s history. That changed in 2020 when the NFL started emphasizing its DEI programs and opportunities for minority coaching and front-office candidates.
While the NFL still has further to go, it has made progress with head coaches. Between 2019 and 2023, there were only three African-American head coaches. Now, seven identify as ethnicities other than White-Anglo.
With President Donald J. Trump pushing to eliminate public and private Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, the NFL’s evidence is clear that DEI programs work. However, they only work when leaders buy into their needs and the overarching productivity they provide. Granted, DEI programs are not perfect, but they are much better than the 500 years of oppression and marginalization BIPOC people experienced in America.
And this is where Kendrick Lamar and the NFL come together. In a world that appears to be caving to the whims of an aspiring dictator and his white supremacist policies, Lamar’s lyrics and the NFL’s commitment to DEI should be heard and valued. “Not Like Us” is not only a diss track against the Canadian rapper Drake, but its lyrics also speak to the state of America.
Those who reject decency, compassion, integrity, character, love, and justice must be reminded that they are not like us. America needs to be filled with people willing to learn from history, offer opportunities to underrepresented groups, and strive for a better tomorrow. A better tomorrow will not be ethnically homogeneous but ethnically diverse.
One day, maybe NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will hand the Lombardi Trophy to the first-ever female head coach to win a Super Bowl. Even though that sounds like a ludicrous idea now, the only way that will ever come to fruition is for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs to thrive.
Kendrick Lamar’s final words will be heard when that day comes: “Game Over.” When oppressive systems finally give way to the hope of diversity, equity and inclusion, the world will lead to a better tomorrow for everyone. And that’s a song we should all be proud to sing.
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