In March, Tom Brady said he was “honored” to acquire a partial stake in the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, and Dr. Jen Welter, the NFL’s first female coach, predicts more investment in the retired athlete’s future.
In 2015, Welter became the first woman in the league to train as a coaching intern under Bruce Arians for the Arizona Cardinals. He is currently on the coaching staff of the Vegas Vipers of the XFL.
“I think Tom Brady is doing a really good job, first of all, expanding his presence in the sport by making smart investments. Really smart people know the ROI for women [Return on Investment] it’s going to be much bigger in the long run,” Welter tells PEOPLE.
She continues, “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. In men’s sports, [Washington] Commanders sold for, what, $6 billion? Everything you do isn’t worth billions, you’re not even in the club.”
dr. Jen Welter speaks at NYFW: The Talks, The Visa Everywhere Initiative presented by Visa during NYFW: The Shows at Spring Studios on February 8, 2020 in New York City.
Bryan Bedder/Getty
Welter thinks Brady’s investment in the women’s basketball team (which also happens to be the reigning WNBA champion) puts the former NFL star ahead of the curve.
“We are only now beginning to see the progress and upward potential of women’s sports,” she says.
Tom Brady says retirement ‘is an opportunity to really sit back and watch and learn a different career’
Another factor Welter thinks prompted Brady to buy a stake in the team? “He has a daughter,” says Welter.
She explains, “If we could all live in empathy, we’d have a much better world. But when you start looking at the world through the lens of someone who means everything to you, everything changes. There are very few fathers of women who don’t look at the world and want good to his daughters, just as to his sons.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2)/tom-brady-ceremony-091123-3-1fba60d243b540758741287e834cdc70.jpg)
Tom Brady kisses daughter Vivian at the New England Patriots’ ceremony honoring the retired quarterback.
JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images
“Cheers to Tom Brady. I like the investment and I think he’ll do it more.”
Welter is getting involved in women’s sports through another method, a partnership with Barbie, while Mattel announces its new Barbie collection for women in sports, featuring Barbies of a general manager, coach, referee and sports reporter.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2)/dr-jen-welter-tom-brady-091823-3-f60480d2d41f4f969236faf9e5279652.jpg)
Barbie launches Women in Sports collection for 2023.
Courtesy of MATTEL
Welter tells PEOPLE, “For me personally, I grew up loving soccer and it was the first place in the world where I was told girls can’t do it.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
She continues: “I could never see myself doing a lot of the things that are now done for girls and women, not only as a player, but as a coach or a referee — or even reporting back then was very male-dominated.”
Welter raises an important question about pockets of soccer culture. “Because football is America’s game, the game that took over Sunday and found its way to Thanksgiving and all that stuff, it’s a larger-than-life game where guys look like superheroes. I know for myself and a lot of the women who played, we’re also I heard very clearly that soccer is the final frontier for women in sports. I know for myself, I took that as a challenge. If this is America’s game, how can it be America’s game if women aren’t allowed to play?”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education