Philadelphia Eagles’ Autumn Lockwood made history this Sunday as the first Black woman coach to win a Super Bowl. This isn’t the first time the assistant sports performance coach made Super Bowl history. Super Bowl LVII might’ve been a loss for the Eagles in 2023, but Lockwood gained significant ground, becoming the first Black woman to ever coach a Super Bowl.
With an already impressive career in the world of sports, Lockwood’s prior roles include director of sports performance at the University of Houston and assistant director of sports performance at Tennessee State University. Lockwood’s experience as well as her specialization in strength and conditioning has led her to triumph as a coach; she’s been credited with playing a crucial role in ensuring players are at peak physical performance and able to play at the top of their game. Her enthusiasm for her work also has played a heavy hand in her career and the success of the Eagles. As former vice president of player performance Ted Rath told The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Her [Lockwood’s] positive attitude is infectious. She comes to work with literally the best attitude I’ve ever been around.”
Lockwood wasn’t the only one to score a touchdown for diversity at this year’s Super Bowl. In a pre-Super Bowl press conference, winning Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts spoke about his all-star management team that happens to be made up entirely of women—three of whom are Black women. A rarity in the NFL, Hurts is one of very few players that employ an all-women management team. Hurts said that he found his team by “seeking out the best” and that he values how they’ve helped propel his career, crediting them as “an eye that I don’t have that I’m able to lean on.”
Diversity didn’t only add to the Eagles’ gameplay—it thrived during the Super Bowl halftime show. The most-watched Super Bowl halftime show on record, Rapper Kendrick Lamar’s winning performance exemplifies the excellence found in our infinite diversity. The history-making performance—which was infused with layers upon layers of pointed political commentary—saw an average viewership of 133.5 million. An impressive feat considering the game itself averaged a record 127.7 million U.S. viewers.
Despite diversity scoring big during Super Bowl LIX, DEI programs continue to fall under fire outside of the game. President Trump recently issued an executive order to terminate “‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities” within the federal government. U.S. companies have also taken steps throughout the past year to roll back DEI policies. According to Forbes, John Deere, Ford Motor Co., Lowe’s, Boeing, Walmart, McDonald’s, Meta, Amazon, Target, Disney and Google are just a handful of numerous organizations that have taken steps to reduce or eliminate DEI initiatives over the past six months.
DEI rollbacks also pose unfortunate implications for the future of diversity among executive leadership. Forbes’ reporting notes that Goldman Sachs is ending its requirement for companies it takes public to have two or more diverse board members (one of which had to be a woman). This move by Goldman Sachs will almost certainly impact the number of companies going public that are led by or have board members who are women or people of color.
In better news, Forbes also notes that the NFL joins companies including Costco, Apple, Delta and Cisco that have recommitted to their diversity initiatives. In a press conference, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell defended DEI, stating that the NFL’s diversity efforts have “attracted better talent” and that “we make ourselves strong and we make ourselves better” when hiring people of all different backgrounds.
Goodell and the NFL aren’t alone in seeing the benefits of DEI. As previously reported, research has shown that a majority of employees personally benefit from workplace DEI initiatives and that these programs increase team diversity. Oftentimes, DEI programs strengthen organizational structures by addressing systemic barriers head on, which increases employee satisfaction and leads to better business outcomes. Moreover, the goal shouldn’t be to dismantle DEI initiatives but to build upon them by measuring and evaluating their success.
Lockwood isn’t only making history as a Black woman—she’s serving an important reminder at a time when the value of diversity, equity and inclusion is constantly being brought into question: if you want the best of the best, you have to look everywhere, not just in one place.
The Eagles and the NFL have made it clear that there are benefits to prioritizing DEI. We should be creating pathways for people of all backgrounds to find career success, not closing doors. The more companies that opt to roll back their DEI initiatives, the more they lose out on great talent like Lockwood or great management teams that catalyze Super Bowl MVPs. DEI works for the NFL, and it has the potential to work for all businesses across industries. Any company that chooses to ignore that is doing itself a disservice.