For the first time in NFL History, two teams squared off with a
female coach on each side!
Lori Locust, D-Line Assistant Coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Katie Sowers, Offensive Assistant for the San Fransisco 49ers, met in their first game of the 100th NFL season, at the Raymond James Stadium. (Buccaneers home ground).
Katie joined the National Football League as a wide receivers intern with the Atlanta Falcons in the summer of 2016. After her summer position ended, Sowers remained with the Falcons as an intern scout until she moved to the San Francisco 49ers in June 2017. With the 49ers, Sowers resumed working as a seasonal offensive assistant until her promotion to offensive assistant in 2019.
In a recent interview with the FCN, Lori Locust (Buccaneers) and Jennifer King (of the Panthers) revealed they have a Whattsap group with Katie, who share her advise and experience with them both as they begin their first season coaching in the NFL. Lori shared with the FCN just how valuable this small network is to her:
“Our Whattsap group is the first brick in the wall that we are able to bounce ideas off one another and just laugh about some stuff. When you coach at a certain level, sometimes it’s difficult to explain this world to people who are outside of it. I don’t mean that in an exclusionary way, but for example, one of the things we always joke about is the calendar – the football calendar is just so different. Sometimes when you are away in season, you don’t know what day it is – you know it’s day 3, but you don’t know if that’s a Tuesday or a Wednesday! You just loose track of so much stuff, you get in this routine. I know it sounds such a small thing, but I’ve had friends from outside of football who just don’t get it. I try and tell them – ‘I’m on football calendar!’ but they don’t understand. So to have people that understand all this to talk to has been so valuable!”
Facing a friend and a mentor today, Coach @KatieSowers and the @49ers …can’t think of a better way to kick off reg season????? #Authentic #WomenInFootball #WomenCoaches #EarnedNotGiven ps…#GoBucs?☠️? @Buccaneers
— Coach Lo Locust (@CoachLoLoc) September 8, 2019
To read out exclusive interview with Lo Locust in her first pre-season with the Buccaneers, click here.
