The first female general manager in NFL history has yet to emerge, though Susan Tose Spencer did handle the tasks without the title for the Philadelphia Eagles in the early to mid 1980s. Kelly Kleine Van Calligan could be about to change that.
On Wednesday, the Denver Broncos’ executive director of football operations and special advisor to the general manager interviewed with the Las Vegas Raiders for the vacant general manager post. Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network initially reported on the interview.
Kleine Van Calligan joined the Broncos in 2021, shortly after George Paton became the team’s general manager. Kleine Van Calligan, like Paton, came to the Broncos from the Minnesota Vikings. She worked in Minnesota in a variety of roles, progressing from public relations intern in 2012 to player personnel manager and college scout in 2019 and 2020.
She also collaborated closely with Paton on the Broncos’ head-coaching search in early 2022, participating in the interview process.
Kleine Van Calligan is one of several contenders who could breach the NFL’s long-standing glass ceiling. Among them is Browns assistant general manager Catherine Raîche, who previously worked for the Philadelphia Eagles.
There are several female owners, albeit not all are the team’s day-to-day chief executive. Some of them include Amy Adams Strunk, who rescued the Tennessee Titans from disaster following the death of founding owner Bud Adams and returned the team to contention. Jody Allen has led the Seattle Seahawks since Paul Allen died in 2018. Sheila Ford Hamp is a second-generation female owner of the Detroit Lions.
But no woman has held the position of executive with the last say in football operations since Tose Spencer, the former vice president of the Eagles. The Eagles’ owner at the time, Leonard Tose, is the father of Tose Spencer. Tose Spencer departed the club after Tose sold it to auto dealership tycoon Norman Braman. That could be altered by Kleine Van Calligan.
The opening was created for Las Vegas by owner Mark Davis’ midseason firings of general manager Dave Ziegler and coach Josh McDaniels. Both had been employed by the Broncos; Ziegler joined the team during McDaniels’ disastrous two-year tenure as head coach.
