She Never Waited for Permission
- 1 hour ago
- 2 min read
She Built This. And She's Just Getting Started.
Odessa Jenkins has heard every version of "no." No, the world isn't ready for women's tackle football. No, you should aim smaller. No, try a different sport altogether. She grew up in South Central LA, where she learned early what it feels like to be told something isn't for you. She kept going anyway, and the Women's National Football Conference is what that persistence built.
When Jenkins first pitched the WNFC to brands, she made a bold promise: in three years, they'd have a hundred million eyeballs, a TV deal, national press, and real sponsorship money. The rooms she walked into were skeptical. One of those early doubters is now a paying partner. Seven years after its founding, the WNFC stands as the largest professional women's football league in the country. There are people who talk about changing the game, and then there are people who actually do it. Odessa Jenkins, OJ, is the second kind.
Essence just published a piece on the woman behind the Women's National Football Conference, and if you haven't read it yet, stop what you're doing and go read it. It's the kind of story that reminds you why this league exists and why its footprint gets bigger each season.
We're not going to retell it here.
What we will say is this: everything you see on game day exists because one person refused to aim smaller when the world told her to. Seven years ago, OJ walked into rooms full of skeptics and made them a promise. Those same rooms are now writing checks.
And the recognition follows the results. At Super Bowl 60, Adweek named Odessa Jenkins one of the most powerful women in sports. Not one of the most powerful women in women's sports. In sports. Full stop. That moment didn't happen in a vacuum, it happened because of everything she's been building, brick by brick, since 2018.
The WNFC isn't just a football league. It's proof that women have always deserved this. We're just finally building it at the scale it needs to thrive and empower those behind us.
And right now? We're in it. Week 1 of the 2026 season delivered exactly the kind of football that makes you want to be in those seats, and we're heading into Week 2 tomorrow with momentum, storylines, and squads that have something to prove. The season is just getting started, and it already has a pulse.
If you've been watching us, you already feel it. The energy is different. And the stakes are real.
Go read the Essence feature. Follow the league. Get your tickets to games. And become a part of it now, because it's only getting bigger.
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