Tom Brady referred to his investment in the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces as “an honor” back in March, and Dr. Jen Welter, who was the first woman to coach in the NFL, believes that the retired player will make further investments in the years to come.
In 2015, Welter became the first woman to ever coach in the National Football League while working as a coaching intern with the Arizona Cardinals under the direction of Bruce Arians. She is now serving as a member of the coaching staff for the XFL team the Vegas Vipers.
First of all, I believe that Tom Brady is doing a pretty wonderful job of expanding his influence in sports by making incredibly sensible investments. This is a really big deal. According to Welter, who spoke with individuals magazine, “Really smart people know that women’s ROI [Return on Investment] is going to be a lot higher in the long run.”
She continues by saying, “Because one of the things that people don’t realize is that when you start at the top, you have to stay at the top. ” Within the realm of male athletics, the [Washington] Commanders were purchased for what, $6 billion? If what you do isn’t worth billions of dollars, you have no business becoming a member of this club.
Welter believes that Brady’s investment in the women’s basketball team, who also happen to be the current champions of the WNBA, puts the former National Football League star ahead of the curve.
“We are just now starting to see the stride and the upside potential of women’s sports,” she adds. “We have a long way to go.”
Another reason, in Welter’s opinion, that drove Brady to buy an interest in the team was… Welter informs me that “He has a daughter.”
She elaborates by saying, “If we were all able to live in empathy, the world would be a much better place.” The moment you start seeing the world through the perspective of a person who is everything to you, though, everything about it shifts and changes. It’s rare to find a girl’s father who doesn’t want the best for their daughter just as much as they want it for their boys because they see the world the same way.
“Raise your glass to Tom Brady. I expect he’ll make more investments like that since I really like it.
A new way for Welter to be engaged in women’s sports is via a relationship with Barbie, which was just announced by Mattel as part of their new Women in Sports Barbie Collection. This collection includes a general manager, coach, referee, and sports reporter Barbie. Welter will be a part of this collection.
According to Welter’s comments in an interview with PEOPLE, “For me personally, I grew up loving football and it was the first place in the world that somebody told me girls can’t do that.”
She goes on to say, “I never was able to see myself doing a lot of the things that have now been done for girls and women in, not only as a player, but as a coach or as a referee — or even reporting back then was very male-dominated.” In other words, she never imagined that she would be able to accomplish the things that have now been done for girls and women.
Welter raises an interesting topic about the subcultures that exist inside football. “Football, being America’s game, is this larger-than-life game where players appear like superheroes. It is the game that took over Sundays and made its way into Thanksgivings and all of those things. I know that when I played, along with a lot of the other women that participated, we heard very clearly that football was the last frontier for women to break into in terms of sports. I can speak for myself when I say that I saw it as a challenge. If this is the game of the United States, then how can it be the game of the United States if women are not permitted to play?”
