DFW Women in Sports: Odessa Jenkins celebrating women in tackle football for generations to come

The possibility of young girls growing up to play professional tackle football is the vision Odessa Jenkins had in mind when she founded the Women’s National Football Conference (WNFC).

“The perfect picture for me is that investors, fans, and brands all see women playing tackle football as so valuable that they’re willing to take all the risk that they are with men and boys’ football,” Jenkins said.

The once-eager teenager from South Central Los Angeles has been advocating for women to be on the gridiron because she remembers the moments when she felt like there was no room for her.

“The boys got bigger, and my coach was like, ‘You’re going to get killed out here. You need to really think about playing a sport that girls play.'”

As an eighth grader, the advice to move on to something else was hard to hear, but Jenkins was facing a different kind of adversity in her personal life.

“My oldest brother Ricardo was murdered due to gang violence in 1991, and it changed the trajectory of my family. I was 11 years old. I just didn’t understand how someone could take someone away from me.”

Jenkins describes seeing death, destruction, and violence growing up in South Central Los Angeles, but sports is where she channeled her pain into purpose.

“That made me fall deeper into the sport and connect with other people that way. I think it did the same thing for my family.”

Her natural athletic ability led her to the basketball court, where she excelled, earning a Division I scholarship.

“I ended up getting a Division I college scholarship, so ideally, it was a really good time for a student-athlete; for me, I was always missing football.”

After graduating and entering the workforce, the California native moved to Dallas where she was reacquainted with the game she loved most.

“The second day I was here, I googled women’s tackle football, and a world opened up I never knew existed.”

Over the next 10 years, Jenkins played with a few different leagues, emerging as the top running back, stacking up gold medals, and winning six national championships.

“That was the kind of pinnacle of my career. I won a natty, I won a world title and came back to Dallas, and people were like, ‘What, women’s football.’ Nobody knew who we were.”

It was some of the best moments in women’s tackle football the world never saw. There was no camera, no streaming, and no real coverage, which motivated Jenkins to make a change by creating the WNFC.

“When we started, there were no women’s sponsors in global sports. Nobody was giving us a dollar. Nobody was giving us products or anything. It was unheard of really for a global brand to sponsor women’s tackle. It had never been done.”

Jenkins spent the past five years on a mission to accelerate to equity and empower women in her sport, and it paid off.

“We’re in a multi-year agreement with Adidas. We just got sponsored by Dove. We now have a five-year agreement with Victory Plus, same partner as the Dallas Stars, same partners as the Texas Rangers.”

A brand that continues to grow and remain authentic.

“It’s the kind of stuff you want for your child, your aunt, right? I want my girls to know that everything, not anything, but everything, is possible for her.”