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NICOLE LYNN
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When Ashley Gardner heard about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts having an all-women management team, she thought the news was unprecedented.
“Women have remained underrepresented in sport leadership for a long time, so Jalen Hurts deciding to bet on women with his all-women team is really unprecedented,” said Gardner, who is an assistant professor at Temple University’s School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management. “His decision has created another legacy off the field for these women.”
Gardner added that it is still difficult for women to advance in sports, whether through playing or having a career, due to societal ideology and norms.
“In the ancient Olympic Games, women were not allowed to enter facilities. When women began to compete in sports, they said they were inferior because of their menstrual cycle. Now we’re seeing women being inferior not only on the field, but also off. There are still some people today who think women don’t belong in sports,” Gardner added.
According to the online recruitment service Zippia, 68% of all sports agents are White. Women make up just 23% of NFL agents and of that 10.4% are African American men or women.
Nicole Lynn, Hurts’ sports agent, is the first African-American woman to represent an NFL draft pick in 2019, when she represented defensive tackle Quinnen Williams. She is also the first African-American female agent to represent a quarterback in the Super Bowl.
She is the president of football operations for Klutch Sports Group, and in 2021 she published her autobiography “Agent You.”
Determined to represent Hurts in the NFL, Lynn reached out to him by sending him a direct message (DM) on Instagram.
“She took a risk by hopping in his DMs, but the great thing about her doing that is that now more women and women of color might be empowered to take risks too,” said Megan R. Smith, founder and president of Brownstone PR.
“Whether that’s in sports or another industry that is dominated by men,” she said. “I also think it gives women the confidence to say ‘Let me step in the room and be my authentic self. Let me show up as myself, demand what I’m worth and put the ball in their court. Whether they decide to say yes or no, I showed up.’”
In addition to Lynn, Hurts has four women that manage his life around football. Klutch Sports Group’s Chantal Romain and Shakeemah Simmons-Winter are a part of Hurts’ media relations and client services management team.
Romain has experience in communication strategies for the NBA, WNBA, NBA G League and NFL. Simmons-Winter is a senior publicist who specializes in the FIBA and NFL. She was the New York Knicks’ public relations coordinator.
Jenna Malphrus handles client management and media relations alongside Simmons-Winter and Rachel Everett, who owns Everett Sports Marketing, handles the NFL star’s marketing.
JALEN HURTS
“I admire anyone who puts their head down and works for what they want,” Hurts said. “And I know women who do that daily, but they don’t get the same praise as men — they don’t get the praise that they deserve.
“I’ve seen that now with tons of different women in my life that are hustlers. Athletes, coaches, women in the business world of sports,” Hurts added. “I see it all the time. And they deserve their flowers, too. So if me saying something about it brings more attention to it, then I’m all for that.”
Smith said Hurts is showing society the right way to invest in women businesses.
“When it comes to the conversation about Jalen Hurts and his all-women management team it’s incredible and dynamic, but for me what’s most important is that he made a financial decision to invest in women,” Smith said.
“He decided that he was going to invest in the people that give him the best results and they all just happen to be women,” she said. “That is how you effect change with your dollars.
“This decision matters because not enough women and women businesses are getting the opportunities that his team are getting. All I keep thinking about is how his team can use this platform for the next big thing.”
Rakia Reynolds, founder and executive officer of the multimedia communications and marketing agency Skai Blue Media, said she would like to see Lynn be positioned as a thought leader.
“I would have Nicole on more stages and have her talk about why she chose her career,” Reynolds said. “I would like to see her leverage this moment and create a sustainable plan so that she has more visibility around herself and the people that can come after her.
“I would also love for people to design more programming, talks and speeches around women who are shifting the lens, shifting the culture and blazing trails,” she said. “It’s all about the legacy work that we do.
“We shouldn’t just be in our career or working our jobs without looking around and saying, ‘Who are the people that are going to come after us? How are we setting an example and how are we opening doors for them? We should always be looking to open doors for other people behind us.”
Reynolds said the advice she would give students looking to be a communications professional or work in sports management is study, learn and consume media.
“Study the greats,” Reynolds said. “See what they’re doing, who’s surrounding them and what they’re consuming.
“Consume media and all of its properties whether it’s leaning into the world of artificial intelligence, having a strategic mind or poking holes in things that everyone is talking about,” Reynolds added. “Read the headlines, see what’s trending and gain as much experience as you can prior to jumping into the thing that you think you want to do.”
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