For the first time in their 100-plus year history, the Chicago Bears will have a female coach on the coaching staff.
Jennifer King, who has spent the past three seasons with the Washington Commanders, has been hired for an offensive spot on the Bears’ staff.
Kevin Fishbain, The Athletic’s Bears beat reporter, had the news first Tuesday evening.
The Bears are hiring Jennifer King to the offensive coaching staff, per source (@BridgetCondon_ first). King spent the past three seasons with the Commanders as their assistant RBs coach.
King will be the first female coach in Bears history.
— Kevin Fishbain (@kfishbain) February 20, 2024
In addition to being the first female coach in Bears history, King became the first black female coach in NFL history when she was hired by the Commanders in 2021 as an assistant running backs coach.
After playing college basketball and softball at North Carolina’s Guilford College. After graduating, King spent 11 years playing for the Carolina Phoenix of the Women’s Football Alliance while also serving as an assistant basketball coach at Greensboro College and completing her Master’s Degree in Sport Management from Liberty University.
In 2018, King met then-Carolina Panthers head coach Ron Rivera, who offered her a coaching internship position with the team. After her internship concluded, King went on to take an offensive assistant role with Dartmouth before reuniting with Rivera for 2020 when she took another internship with the Washington Commanders. She was promoted to a full-time position after the season where she remained until Rivera’s firing in January 2024.
It’s unclear where on the offensive coaching staff King will serve with the Bears at the moment.
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