Notes: Detroit Lions celebrate Women’s History Month

The Detroit Lions are one of a few NFL teams with a woman in charge as its principal/controlling owner, so it makes sense that the team has a strong commitment to including women in its football operations and outreach. Sheila Hamp has done an incredible job, recognized by both the fans and the football community alike, and the organization she runs reflects that leadership. In the final week of Women’s History Month, the team released some very cool videos that are worth a watch.

First up, the team features Maggy Carlyle, Jessica Gray, Lindsay Frattaroli, Elizabeth Laux, Leah Emmons, Gina Newell, Dannie Rogers, Jesica McCullough, Rebecca Smoker, Nisha Collins, Jordan Haag, Lauren Harper in an inspirational video about being a part of NFL football. It’s similar in spirit to last year’s video with Jill Costanza, Dannie Rogers, Kristen Dale, and Jessica Gray, but nice in that so many of the women contributing to the success of the team could be in it this year.

As a labor economist, the sheer number of women in the ranks of the Detroit Lions’ administrative and operations units (especially at the higher echelons) makes me smile. You always want the most effective people for the job, and of course many of the best people are going to be women! I’ve probably said this before, but an organization can’t be at its best if it underutilizes half of the potential workforce; the Lions are clearly making great use of the entire talent pool.

The second item is a follow-up to something we posted a few days ago in Notes. There were photos from the Girls Flag Football Clinic for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan at Ford Field on March 28, but now there are a pair of videos about the clinic: a short video about the event (with more information and different from the one in the Tweet) is on the team’s official site in the video section, and then there’s this recap from the media team:

NFL flag football has gotten a huge push by the league with major partnerships to introduce young women to football, and is making a difference. About two weeks ago, NFL affiliated Play Football posted an amazing NFL360 video titled “Leaving a Legacy” about a group of girls working with Matt Leinart in southern California to build up girls flag football there. It’s great to see the Lions working with partners to bring girls flag football to Michigan in a big way.

Now, on to the rest of your weekend Notes:

• The guest for this week’s Twentyman in the Huddle podcast episode was head coach Dan Campbell. You can see the entire video on the team’s official YouTube channel.

• On the Wednesday Whiteboard segment during Good Morning Football a few days ago, Jason McCourty declared Jameson Williams as the player he believes will be an “absolute maniac” in 2023.

• A ritual always observed at the NFL annual owners’ meeting is a photo with all of the current head coaches (if they are attending). This year’s photo, courtesy of an Arizona Cardinals senior vice president:

Now, there are a lot of comedic reviews of the photo each year like Good Morning Football’s Kyle Brandt roasting the looks of specific coaches in the shot. Some observers point out cool things like how Bills head coach Sean McDermott wears pretty much the same thing every year. This year, though, the Kelce brothers did it better than anyone else. Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce challenged his brother San Francisco tight end Travis Kelce to name the coaches in the photo on their “New Heights” podcast, and the results are magnificent:

A larger high resolution video (but without the helpful subtitles) is available in its full uncensored glory on their YouTube channel.

• Now an ongoing series of hilarious videos, the Lions media team released Notecard Questions with the “Money Badger” Michael Badgley and free agent cornerback acquisitions Cam Sutton and Emmanuel Moseley. You can watch all three videos on the team’s official YouTube channel.

• March was also National Reading Month, and the Lions posted this delightful video with incumbent long snapper Scott Daly reading “You Are One in a Chameleon” by Monica Robinson to celebrate it:

• Nick Baumgardner and Colton Pouncy from The Athletic posted the latest episode of their podcast One Of These Years. In it, they discuss the annual NFL owners’ meeting and Lions draft scenarios. You can listen to the entire episode on Spotify.

• Ben Raven and Kyle Meinke from MLive also posted a new episode of their podcast Dungeon of Doom with five juicy tidbits from Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes from the NFL owners’ meeting. You can also listen to the entire episode of this podcast on Spotify.