Finally

The Sporting News recently reported that the Minnesota Vikings promoted Kelly Kleine to college scouting coordinator. The significance of this is that she is a she. Great for her and for the women that are waiting and able to play a greater role in a profession that has been dominated by men.

Sporting News reported that 14 women currently work in football operations. That's a very small number considering the number of people that work on that side of the business for the 32 teams. It's a start. With each new hire more doors open and the opportunities for more women in football grow. That's a good thing. Women can negotiate contracts, scout, and coach as well as men. More importantly they tend to not take these jobs, especially in football, for granted.

Kelly Kleine got her start with the Vikings as a media relations intern. She made the jump to the football side of things in 2013 as a scouting assistant. That was her opportunity and she took advantage.

"She does about 1,000 different things," Vikings general manager told Alex Marvez of the Sporting News. "She basically has her hands in all day-to-day operations on the personnel side."

"One thing we always try to identify are self-starters who have the work ethic and attention to detail where you can trust them to carry out whatever assignment is given them," Spielman said in the Sporting News interview. "In our eyes, it's not about being a man or a woman or what religion or race you are. It's who is most qualified regardless."

Kleine exceeded the expectations of her job and now she's a football scout. A job dominated by men in the NFL for nearly 100 years.

Kleine is the latest example of female employees given the opportunity to advance through the Vikings organization. The team promoted three women to vice president positions on the business side of operations last year. Anne Doepner is the director of football administration. She handles compliance issues with the NFL management council for all collective bargaining issues. She also negotiated the contracts of the Vikings 2017 draft picks.

Congratulations to Kelly Kleine, Anne Doepner, and all of the women that are finally getting their shot in football.