Vikings promote Kelly Kleine, elevating another woman in football administration

The Vikings this week promoted Kelly Kleine, a former media relations intern who transitioned into the scouting department as an intern during the 2013 offseason, to the position of college scouting coordinator.

That promotion makes Kleine “one of the most preeminent members of the 14 women who work for NFL teams in football operations,” according to Sporting News, which first reported the news of her elevated role.

The duties for Kleine, whose previous title was college scouting assistant, include scouting at college pro days and coordinating the team’s annual trip to the NFL scouting combine. She also helps out at practice. This week she was spotted using a stopwatch to clock the hang-time of punts.

“She does about 1,000 different things to say the least,” general manager Rick Spielman told Alex Marvez of the Sporting News. “She basically has her hands in all day-to-day operations on the personnel side.”

Kleine is not the only woman who has ascended in the team’s football administration department. Anne Doepner last year was promoted to director of football administration and assists executive vice president of football operations Rob Brzezinski with contract negotiations.

“One thing we always try to identify are self-starters who have the work ethic and attention to detail where you can trust them to carry out whatever assignment is given them,” Spielman said in the Sporting News interview. “In our eyes, it’s not about being a man or woman or what religion or race you are. It’s who is the most qualified regardless.”