The First Female NFL Coach.
LAKE: A major barrier for women in sport has been broken and of all places it happened in the National Football League. The NFL is getting its first female member of a coaching staff. The team who hired her is the Arizona Cardinals and they tweeted she has a Masters, she has a PhD, she has an Arizona Cardinal's coaching job. She's Jen Welter. Rachel Nichols is here. And, Rachel, this is a big deal and a lot of people are surprised that it's coming from the</s>NFL. RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN WORLD SPORT: Yes, I mean look, we saw a female assistant coach in the NBA just this past season and she actually coached the San Antonio Spurs summer league team and won the whole thing. Because what do you want to do when you're making history - let's go out and win the whole thing. Jen Welter not in that kind of position. She's coming in at the entry -- entriest-of-entry levels, but that's how it works in professional sports. You start as an assistant to the assistant kind of thing and then you work your way up. And the fact that she is getting the opportunity to do that is huge. It makes a statement about the NFL and their inclusiveness. We all know that sports in many countries, certainly in the United States, leads social change. We've seen Jackie Robinson, we've seen Billie Jean King beating Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes. There's so many times where it happens first in sports in America and then filters out to the rest of society. And the message here is not just about women's being included, it's also about a woman leading a group of men. When you're the coach, you are in charge. And one of the big questions there has been about female leadership at the highest levels is OK, OK she's smart - whether it's in politics or in sports - but are the guys really going to listen to her?</s>LAKE: And that is my question - how do you think she will be received? Because we have seen very talented young players drop out because they didn't like some of the hazing, whether it was because of sexuality or where they came from or race. There've been a lot of issues. How do you think she's going to cope with that locker room?</s>NICHOLS: Well so far it's been very positive. In fact some of the leaders on the Arizona Cardinals team have made a point of taking to Twitter and taking to other forms of media to say, hey, we're happy about this. And I think in any locker room it's really about what the bigger players do and say. If they let things like hazing or sexual comments go on, then that's going to happen. If they say, `Hey, we don't that around here,' then that's what you'll get. And the leaders of the Arizona Cardinals have been forthright in saying hey we welcome this. And I think Bruce Arians, the head coach, wouldn't have done this -</s>LAKE: Right.</s>NICHOLS: -- if he thought it was going to be disruptive. But he is a very progressive guy, he's got a very mature and veteran locker room and she's a smart football person. And the thing about the NFL we see over and over again is that winning trumps all -</s>LAKE: That's right, that's right - they want to win.</s>NICHOLS: -- you know, there are people who have literally been accused of murder who have been - gotten interest from football teams because they thought they could help them win. So just being a woman - I mean, heck - if you're going to help you win - that's nothing.</s>LAKE: Nothing, that's right. Which leads us to the cheaters. We have a big news breaking about Tom Brady of course accused of cheating to get the Super Bowl title - NFL sticking by their decision.</s>NICHOLS: Yes. They've decided to uphold his four-game suspension and this is a couple levels of bombshell here. First of all, a lot of people thought that it would be reduced. This is in the "Deflategate" saga that we in America insist on talking about I think every five minutes basically.</s>NICHOLS: But it's not just that. The NFL came out in its ruling saying they were upholding his four-game suspension. They said that Tom Brady destroyed his cell phone on the day that NFL investigators were supposed to come talk to him. And the idea that he then was destroying all of this evidence has been seen as not just not participating in the investigation but obstructing the investigation. And that is part of what this punishment is for. Now, Tom Brady in his appeal hearing that has already happened, came back and said, `Hey, you know what? I change cell phones every four or five months. I always destroy or have my assistant destroy the phone and the SIM card. It's a privacy issue. He is of course married to the international supermodel Giselle, so maybe there's people going through his trash in a way that don't go through your trash or my trash. But there are some problems with the fact that he obviously knew this investigator was coming to talk to him. He did have the appointment in fact. He destroyed it that day anyway. And there was a previous cell phone that he had that the NFL was aware of was still in existence so their case is, hey, if you're destroying all your phones, how come we know that this one is still around? So a lot of questions and we'll have to see now if Brady and the NFL Players Association take the NFL to court. That's the next step (inaudible).</s>LAKE: It's going to be a big issue for the league the next season and also inevitably Tom Brady's legacy.</s>NICHOLS: Absolutely.</s>LAKE: Rachel, thank you so much for joining us, it's great to see you.</s>NICHOLS: Thanks.</s>LAKE: Now after 25 years, the new bestseller for Dr. Seuss -- "How Pet Should I Get?" soared to the top of the charts.