"The Snap," hosted by Sydney Jones and Alexis Perry, is an engaging podcast that gives Broncos fans a unique breakdown of the team while spotlighting women's influence around the NFL.
Throughout the month of March, in celebration of Women's History Month, Jones and Perry produced four special episodes that featured female leaders around the NFL landscape. These episodes were focused on how women representation in the NFL, and sports as a whole, has grown over the years.
This monthlong Women's History Month campaign included:
Episode 24: Celebrating Women's History Month with NFL Senior Director Sam Rapoport
Sam Rapoport is the NFL's Senior Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and created a movement for women in sports by creating a new diversity platform for the NFL. She was recently named one of Sports Illustrated's Most Powerful, Most Influential and Most Outstanding Women in Sports. Rapoport helped kick off the beginning of Women's History Month by discussing the changes she hopes to continue to see for women in sports, the creation of the NFL's Women's Careers in Football Forum and more.
"I think the biggest change I'd like to see is us moving from one woman to two," Rapoport said. "It's really critical for us to remove the spotlight from one woman and if she succeeds then women belong in football and if she fails … that women don't."
Rapoport also mentioned that "moving toward ubiquity is our ultimate mission. We want this to normalize. … We just want to let women do their jobs."
Episode 25: Celebrating Women's History Month with NFL on FOX broadcaster Laura Okmin
NFL on FOX broadcaster Laura Okmin was the second guest of the month for "The Snap." Okmin helped celebrate Women's History Month by talking about the creation of GALvanize, a company Okmin started to empower women by hosting workshops and boot camps for women navigating the world of sports. Okmin also discussed being the third-longest-tenured sideline reporter in NFL history and the evolution of women representation in the NFL.
"I would always count women at events," Okmin said. "It started with one hand, and then it went to two hands, and then all of a sudden I couldn't count anymore because there were so many women, and that was magnificent."
Okmin went on to say that, although we've seen progress, she hopes to start seeing women in "powerful positions in this league."
"We always talk about a seat at the table," Okmin said. "I don't want a seat at the table. I want to run the table."
Episode 26: Celebrating Women's History Month with Broncos' Caroline Deisley and Tioni Taylor
"The Snap" also featured two members of the Broncos' digital media team. Broncos social media engagement manager Caroline Deisley and Broncos digital development and design manager Tioni Taylor joined Sydney Jones to discuss their roles with the team, being women in their positions and more.
"I think it's 50 percent of all NFL [social media] accounts are run by women," Deisley said. "It's just awesome."
"When I came to the Denver Broncos, I was the only girl in our department," Taylor said. "Now, we are 50-50. We have just as many women in our department now as we have men."
Both Deisley and Taylor also gave advice to young women looking to get into the sports industry.
"The ability to talk about what you want to do and what you love and what your passionate about, isn't something that you should be afraid of," Deisley said. "It's more acceptable [now] for there to be several women working in sports. … There's less of a stigma around it and I'm really glad to see that that's changed."
"Continue doing you, continuing just being the best person that you are," Taylor said. "These walls are breaking down and all the other women in the industry are coming full force."
Episode 27: Celebrating Women's History Month with Taryn Simmons
Jones and Perry wrapped up Women's History Month by talking to Justin Simmons' wife, Taryn. Taryn Simmons spoke about how her experience as a Division I basketball player inspired her to give back to young female athletes.
"Sports played such a huge role in forming me into who I am," Simmons said. "I know we wouldn't be who we are now if we hadn't grown up playing sports."
Simmons also discussed the progress she's seen in women's sports since she played.
"It's been cool to see," Simmons said. "I played women's basketball and almost all of my coaches were men. … I maybe had a handful of women refs in my lifetime."
Want more of "The Snap"? New episodes are released every Friday morning and can be found on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, DenverBroncos.com and the Broncos 365 mobile app.