NFL Women’s Forum ‘an empowering moment’ for Villanova’s Allison Haley

A year ago, Allison Haley was a personal trainer at Zarett Rehab & Fitness, a sports performance center in Rittenhouse Square. The role gave the Philadelphia native an opportunity to work with NFL and college football players, helping in their recovery, whether it be post-surgery or chronic injuries.

While she enjoyed the job and guiding athletes through the rehabilitation process, Haley knew she wanted a larger role in shaping an athlete’s preparation in the weight room, physical conditioning training, and bringing those workout habits and regimen onto the football field. So in June, Haley joined Villanova as an assistant coach on the strength and conditioning staff, helping oversee the softball, baseball, and lacrosse programs, with a primary focus in football, after previously serving as an intern for the university.

It didn’t take long for Haley to know she made the right career decision.

“I’m not doing this to be just a woman working in football, I’m doing it because I love the sport, I love what it offers in terms of challenges with positions, personalities, and overall the whole grind of it,” Haley said in a telephone interview. “Just seeing them go from having their highs or lows but like just a team culture — with football it’s completely different than any other [sport].”

In just nine months in her new role, Haley has made substantial progress, both personally and professionally. That included a trip last month to the eighth annual NFL Women’s Forum, a chance for women in football across the college and pro landscapes to learn from NFL coaches and general managers along with other women who are coaching in the league.

Last year, Autumn Lockwood, the Eagles’ associate performance coach, and Philly native Lori Locust, the Titans’ defensive quality control coach, were among six coaches on the panel at the scouting combine in Indianapolis. Lockwood and Locust returned this year as the size of the panel doubled to 12.

Haley was one of 40 participants in this year’s forum thanks to a connection with one of the panelists.

“With all these women, I’ve really been keeping up with them, just watching them grow and progress in their own career,” said Haley. “So being in the same room as them was such an empowering moment, and I’m just thankful to be part of it.”

After earning her new job at Villanova, Haley decided to reach out to a few women who are at the highest levels of the strength, conditioning, and performance side of the NFL. She contacted Titans sports performance assistant Haley Roberts and Lockwood, a Chester native who joined the team before the 2022 season.

During their conversation, Lockwood told Haley she would reach out to Sam Rapoport, the NFL’s senior director of diversity, equity, and inclusion, on her behalf to add her name on the list of candidates to attend the women’s forum. Haley needed to submit a resumé and references as well during the application process. Once she was at the forum, the two met in person and Haley says it felt like they didn’t miss a beat.

» READ MORE: Eagles’ Autumn Lockwood among 6 female coaches at the NFL Women’s Forum discussing their experiences

“Once I connected with her, it was almost like we were friends for a long time,” Haley recalled of meeting Lockwood in person. “... She’s a good role model to lean on because she [has] an open-door policy.”

Among the speakers on the first day of the forum were head coaches Todd Bowles of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, John Harbaugh of the Baltimore Ravens, former Washington Commanders coach Ron Rivera, Kevin Stefanski of the Cleveland Browns, and Shane Steichen of the Indianapolis Colts.

NFL coaches like Lockwood and Locust have made lasting connections within the league that allowed them to move up in their careers. During her time at the forum, Haley said the experience made her “more motivated than ever — it gave me a fire [inside of me].”

“It just helped us put it in perspective that we do have a chance to go to the NFL, it’s a weird kind of path that is going to get you there, if that’s where you actually want to go,” Haley explained. “Having the support from a lot of the male head coaches of teams, the owners, the executives, having their support there and their overall goal to get more women involved in the NFL was probably the most empowering moment.”

Now entering her second season with the Titans after surviving Mike Vrabel’s firing in January, Locust shared her coaching journey at the forum. It has been a busy offseason for the Temple alumna, who coached NFL prospects at the East-West Shrine Bowl in Frisco, Texas, two months ago. She coached the defensive line alongside former Colts defensive assistant Bryan Bing, who is now the Chicago Bears defensive line coach. A recommendation from Vrabel helped open that door for Locust.

As the interest and growth of women coaching in pro football has continued to rise, Locust says the pressure on coaches who have blazed the trail for the women behind them has increased as well.

» READ MORE: Groundbreaking NFL coach Lori Locust, a Philly native and Temple alumna, on her path to the Titans

“How we act, how we perform, how we take on new tasks, how we get hired and fired and rehired — that is setting a groundwork for anybody that comes behind us and how unbelievably important it is that we do things the right way that we continue to try and grow,” Locust told The Inquirer by phone. “If one of us doesn’t do things the way we’re supposed to or falls short of expectation, it’s a broad brush. [For] the women that have been in [coaching] for a while, we talked about that. It’s a concern because we’ve all worked so hard to get where we’re at.

“[We’re] just trying to make sure that the women that come behind us have the training, have the experience, have the personality, all of it that goes into hiring any candidate — we all kind of have a hand in it.”

Like Lockwood has done in the strength, conditioning, and performance side of the NFL, Locust, too, recommended an attendee to the forum, Coastal Carolina’s Meghan Ford, a wide receiver student assistant coach. Ford also spent last season serving as a Kansas City Chiefs training camp intern.

Locust added that she hopes more organic hiring practices will allow women to get opportunities within the NFL as opposed to the forum, which serves as a place to get in front of NFL coaches, general managers, and executives for the first time.

“I think in the future that maybe the combine, if it’s still in existence, will serve as a meeting place, a reconnection place, but I don’t necessarily know that any of us want to see that five years from now we’re still having to come in and still having to light the way for this to still be a thing,” Locust added. “I think there’s enough talent and enough young women that are working at the college level that it’s going to grow organically the way that it should, with women earning those positions. ... We haven’t had the framework, like our male colleagues, of having all the connections.

“I think that’s what we’re all hoping for that in the very near future because we’re just going to get hired because they know of us, they know our work, and [know] we’re qualified candidates.”