Sam Rapoport is expanding a foundation of inclusion at the NFL. | Design by Kyle Neal

Sam Rapoport recently attended a women’s sports event organized by the New York Liberty. There she introduced herself to the room as “super gay, and really proud of that.”

The thought of saying such a thing publicly would once have terrified the NFL’s senior director of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Growing up in Ottawa, Rapoport was immersed in football, but the term “tomboy” bothered her. One of its lingering effects was in how she presented herself during her first 10 years of working for the league.

“All the women dressed the same and I couldn’t see myself in anyone,” she tells Outsports.

Now she’s among the most influential LGBTQ women in U.S. sports, a fearless advocate for equal opportunities, and the 14th entry on the 2024 Outsports Power 100. Being out has helped her become outstanding in her field, giving her a level of confidence the younger Sam never felt.

At that recent event in New York, she told the other attendees how she saw herself reflected in many of them.

“It makes the room warm up to you,” she said. “I don’t say that being gay is a superpower just to make myself feel better about the negative stuff I experienced as a kid. I say it because it’s actually true.”

Sam Rapoport says ‘Anything’s possible’

In 2007, Rapoport created the NFL Girls Flag Football Leadership Programme. A decade later, she spearheaded the NFL Women’s Forum, a careers initiative.

These two projects have contributed to the NFL having 15 female coaches, more than any other men’s pro sports league in the world. The pipeline is tunneling deeper into America’s game.

“If we can crack the nut of women coaching American tackle football, there’s no excuse for anyone not to have women in these positions that were previously male-dominated,” says Rapoport, who was named an Outsports Female Hero of the Year in 2018. “It also inspires women to understand that anything’s possible in this sport.”

Having flag football at the L.A. 2028 Olympics is also going to motivate a whole generation, she believes. Flag football is thriving — even away from big metropolitan areas — putting down roots in states like Alaska and Utah where the leagues serve as beacons. 

“These communities that are being created through football are safe spaces for so many women and girls who might not fit the typical mold of whatever society wants to define. Here, they can show their personalities and be themselves.”

Rapoport is already “the biggest cheerleader” for all those who will be involved in the Olympic flag football tournament.

“You’re going to see a mix of women from different backgrounds, sexual orientations, everything. It will be an incredible representation of what America really is.”

She cites officiating as a particularly vital pathway, giving the example of Desiree Abrams as a role model.

“It’s a critical component — we must ensure we have enough Desirees coming through. With the work that our officiating team is doing, our doors are opening wider for women and girls to enter the space and change the sport.”

The embrace of the NFL

The NFL has been increasingly bullish in its diversity commitments, never more so than in a commercial from Pride Month three years ago — shortly after player Carl Nassib came out as gay — that began with the message “Football is Gay”.

The ad went on to state that football is also every other orientation and identity within the LGBTQ initialism, as well as “beautiful”, “freedom”, “American”… “everything”, in fact.

Rapoport describes the ad as “the inflection point” on the league’s inclusion arc, admitting she still finds it “mind-blowing” that it aired. Yet despite many businesses and brands now rolling back on their DEI efforts — “it’s been disheartening” — she is sure of the NFL’s direction.

“We’ve put our flag in the ground as to where we stand and I know that with the leadership we have, there is no chance we’re backing down.

“To watch how the NFL wraps its arms around us means the world to not just those of us who are LGBTQ and who work for the league, but for the fans.”

It’s not uncommon for Rapoport to take a call from an owner or high-ranking executive asking for guidance on an LGBTQ topic, and it’s reciprocal too — she mentions Darcie Glazer Kassewitz of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as someone who has been an important mentor in recent years.

Another sign of the shifting landscape is the NFL’s global expansion plans. Commissioner Roger Goodell has suggested as many as 16 games could soon be played in international markets each season.

CBS Sports reports there has even been an NFL site visit in the past year to Abu Dhabi. Homosexuality is illegal for both men and women in the U.A.E., highlighting an inevitable talking point around divergent values. 

That sounds treacherous from a DEI point of view, but Rapoport takes it all in her stride. Whether at home or abroad, she still has some conversations in which “awkwardness” creeps in, should she happen to mention her wife and two kids.

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“Sometimes I say it with a pit in my stomach because I know what’s coming,” she says. “If you’re speaking to that type of person, they tend to start stuttering.

“But my wife and I both always err on the side of honesty and by saying it, we’re working to change minds. If we can be someone’s first experience of a two-mom family, we’re willing to be that so the next family can be the second.”

This gives an idea of how Rapoport channels her power.

Yes, a position like hers comes with corporate responsibility, but she insists that it is authenticity that matters most. At the NFL, she is laying the foundation for a platform for future “superheroes” to carry on the change in sports.

“Young LGBTQ people today are often bolder and more confident than me and so many in my generation were.

“The sports world still tends to lag behind the rest of the world. I’m proud that my office is leading the charge to improve that.”

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