Wednesday morning, Lori Locust was in a Birmingham Iron meeting room. By the end of the day, she was literally on her way to the NFL.
Locust was hired by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, one of two female assistants Bruce Arians added to his staff. So she grabbed her stuff and began the drive from Alabama to Tampa to begin a new job.
“I packed up what little of my life I brought with me, and now I’m somewhere on I-75 with another hour to go,” Locust told Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times from her Toyota Corolla. “It’s surreal, it really is, and I mean in some ways, to me, it’s just knowing that I have to be ready to go to work.”
Locust has some background with her new boss, as her ex-husband played for Arians at Temple. But long before then, she has carved her own path to a job in football.
“Nobody else loved football the way I did in my family,” Locust said. “Jack Lambert was my hero. It became part of everything I did.”
She played four years in a women’s league, until an injury forced her to the sidelines. She coached at the high school and semi-pro level, and got a break with a spot in last year’s Bill Walsh internship (with the Ravens). But at no step in her journey has she had any issues with a player based on gender.
“I’ve never had a problem with a player,” Locust said. “No one has ever treated me as anything but as a coach. Players are able to see through somebody who’s not being authentic. I can talk to them about scheme and when I played. I really don’t operate differently than any other coach.
“I think there’s a mutual respect. I certainly respect the players for all the work they put into their craft, and I honor that and they just want to get better at the end of the day.”
Arians pledged to hire female assistants during a forum at the Super Bowl in Atlanta, but has been working toward this for years. He brought Jen Welter in as an intern in 2015 when he was coaching the Cardinals, and how has a pair of female coaches on his staff on a full-time basis.