King began playing tackle football with the boys while growing up in Reidsville, North Carolina, about 120 miles north of Charlotte. She became addicted to the game of football like most kids while watching the sport with her father. According to the Washington Post, the first Super Bowl that King watched was the one, ironically, where the Redkins demolished the Denver Broncos 42-10 in 1988. The quarterback of that squad was Doug Williams, the first-ever Black man to start at that position in a Super Bowl.
King was so good at football as an adolescent that junior high and high school coaches tried to get her to come out for the teams. But King’s mother nixed that idea, so King excelled at prep basketball, went onto relative stardom in Guilford College and then played professional b-ball in Australia for a brief spell. But the love for football never dissipated.
She became a police officer in High Point, North Carolina, and was the starting quarterback for the women’s professional team, the Carolina Phoenix. She then became the head women’s basketball coach at Johnson & Wales in 2016.
After transforming the team in her first year, then winning the national title the next season, she then bolted in the middle of the third season for an opportunity to intern with the Carolina Panthers. The head coach, Ron Rivera, would soon move to become the coach in Washington, and King went with him.
Then in January 2021, Rivera made the decision official to hire King full time. She is being lauded across pop culture, but particularly from other pioneers, such as tennis legend Billie Jean King:
HERstory made‼️
From the original trailblazer @BillieJeanKing to @JenniferKing5! pic.twitter.com/IkVbdF6uEm
— Washington Commanders (@Commanders) January 26, 2021
