Players and coaches from 3 WNBA teams (LA Sparks, Dallas Wings, and Washington Mystics) discuss:

In a new, and different style podcast than what you're used to, the athletes listed below discuss:

1. Advantages/disadvantages of playing in the WNBA's 'Wubble' at IMG Academy in Florida
2. What activities unstructured time
3. The food
4. Must-Pack items
5. And so much more!

PLAYERS

Nneka Ogwumike

Seimone Augustus

T’ea Cooper

Moriah Jefferson

Chelsea Gray

Nneka

Bella Alarie

Katie Lou Samuelson

Brittney Sykes

Sydney Weise

Candace Parker

Satou Sabally

Megan Gustafson

Reshanda Gray

Alaina Coates

COACHES

Brian Agler

Mike Thibault

“I didn’t want to be one of those people that hung around and tarnished what I had built in my career if I wasn’t all in it. I’m either 100% in or 100% out and, at that point, I knew I had to be out… because I wasn’t 100% in. 80% is not good enough.” - Miesha Tate

From cupcakes to the evolution of the female talent pool in MMA and from Tacoma to Singapore: Miesha Tate like you’ve never heard her before: open, honest, and vulnerable about life in and beyond the octagon.

Miesha talks about character building in her high school wrestling career- on the mat and at home, her most poignant “pick-yourself-off-the-floor” moment, and if she saw her retirement from UFC coming. Tate takes the listener inside her inside-the-Octagon cognitive awareness and discusses moments of self-reflection after retirement.

There's also a Bathroom Birth: a play by play. For the FIRST time, Miesha Tate talks about how her son Daxton took stay-at-home orders to a new level…. By being born in her bathroom... followed by a deep discussion on life’s little surprises and on motherhood.

There’s a transparent dialogue about, of course, Ronda Rousey.

• Symbiotic relationship with Ronda Rousey: who benefitted more from it?
• After believing that she and Ronda would enter the HOF together, what did Miesha Tate think about Rousey’s induction speech?
• Was it real?
• Communication post-MMA career

Currently, what was item number one on VP Tate’s agenda for One Championship, what is the longterm scope of the league, and a discussion about how cultural norms and lifestyle compare the opportunity of female MMA fighters in Asian culture against that of Western female fighters.

LISTENER QUESTIONS:

• Kevin in NJ: Did you ever think about joining the WWE like Lesnar and Rousey?

• Mike from Queens: One Championship - What’s the biggest difference between being involved in a match in Asia vs USA?

“You’re always going to come across somebody, at some point in your career, that doesn’t really think you belong there [but] you’ll come across way more that think you do-which is the great part about where the sport is heading.” - Venessa Hutchinson

I talked with Venessa Hutchinson, the NFL’s Senior Manager of Football Development, about a wide-range of topics relating to the NFL's diversity in hiring practices, specific to women in football. We discussed her career path- demanding respect from predominantly male coworkers and former players, learning the game of football so intricately without playing it so competitively, and the most rewarding part about being an integral piece of the NFL's league office.

Most importantly, we'll discuss the Annual Womens’ Careers in Football Forum:

• Qualifications to get accepted into the program
• About 100 participants from the Forum have been hired- a testament to the networking available at the Forum
• Ways to make yourself, a potential candidate, stand out to a team
• Which coaches absolutely jump at the opportunity to come to the Forum and cultivate a culture of tolerance for women in football?
• In which areas would you like to see the program grow?
• Women in media branch to it soon?

We'll also tackle:

• Scouting
• The eventuality of a woman making a team: and will it be Carli Lloyd?
• The viability of canceling the entire preseason schedule
• Roster repercussion concerns for an entirely scrapped preseason: bubble guys and rookie quarterbacks

• Will there, one day, be a “Rooney Rule” for women in football?

• What do head coaches like Ron Rivera and Mike Vrabel do to set up cultures of tolerance in their own locker rooms?

The 3 “arms” of NFL Football Operations

1. Player Safety: Potential adjustments to the draft and the scouting combine to make sure that all players, including those in COVID-affected collegiate programs
2. Officiating: My solution- is making officials full-time employees of the league an option?
3. Long-Term Success of the league: plan of action to include female fans

LISTENER QUESTIONS:

• Bill in Massachusetts: How far away are we from seeing a woman in the NFL as a player?
• Jay from New Jersey: Who of your peers, maybe even from the Women’s Careers in Football Forum, whose impact we need to know more about?
• Jim from Massachusetts: When do we see the first female offensive or defensive coordinator in the NFL?
• Bob from Nutley: Does the NFL really think it could keep all players, coaches, and staff COVID-free?

More info: https://operations.nfl.com/football-ops/economic-social-impact/womens-careers-in-football-forum/