The NFL has created a position to address the lack of women in coaching and scouting roles at the team level and named former womens football pro tackle player Sam Rapoport as director of football development.Rapoports role will be to identify women who are knowledgeable about the game and train them, and to create a space for those women in the social networks that often lead to jobs in football.My role is to create programming to show them that the pipeline is open to them, Rapoport said Tuesday, and create that pipeline for females to enter into positions that were traditionally held by men.Opportunities for women and minorities have been a focus for the NFL in the past year. The leagues insularity was exposed during the crisis surrounding Ray Rices domestic violence suspension. Last winter, women in the front office planned a womens summit that was held during the Super Bowl. There, commissioner Roger Goodell announced the NFL front office was creating a Rooney Rule for women in front-office jobs, meaning that for every managerial position and higher, a woman would be interviewed before a hire is made.With 52.6 million women viewing the Super Bowl this past February, according to the NFL, the league wants to expand opportunities for women in, for example, officiating and as athletic trainers.In such a strategic hire as this, we needed to have an individual that is passionate and knowledgeable in this space, NFL EVP of football operations Troy Vincent said. Sam is an excellent fit.Currently, 30 percent of the NFLs front-office employees are women. Football operations jobs are a different story. Sarah Thomas became the first woman hired as a full-time referee last year, and Kathryn Smith is a full-time quality-control coach for the Bills.Rapoport, as a former player, is plugged into a network of women who have played the game known as professional womens football even though players generally dont get paid to play. Jen Welter, the first woman to coach in the NFL through a coaching internship with the Arizona Cardinals, had a background in womens tackle and later played and coached men. Similarly, the NFL wants to mine that talent and train women for possible jobs in coaching and scouting.Playing tackle football obviously is not a prerequisite to being an excellent coach, Rapoport said. Adam Gase coaches the Dolphins and never played (in college or the NFL), and there are others. Its not a prerequisite, but in order to be a good coach, you have to have a general knowledge of football and you have to be able to relay that info in a coherent way to players. And, to me, that translates to male or female. Do you know your stuff, and are you able to relay that in a coherent way?Connecting qualified women with NFL teams may be a bigger challenge. Rapoport has been calling general managers and owners to set up a committee on gender inclusion. With just two months on the job, she is in the early stages, but the goal is to create connections that can lead to jobs in a field where many hires are based on previous relationships in mens football.Thats how any job -- not just football, but any job thats a prestigious job -- is acquired, Rapoport said. Thats our biggest barrier. We didnt grow up in the male tackle football world, so we dont have a friend who is a coach, or, I played for him, so hell recommend me for a job.Thats a reason this position exists, and thats a big-time focus for me, just connecting owners and general managers to women who are very qualified and very passionate and ready to go.Rapoport played flag and touch football growing up in Canada and was a member of the Canadian national flag team. She has worked in football since 2003, first with a marketing internship with the NFL and later developing a national flag football program for girls during her six years with USA Football.In 2003, as a quarterback for the Montreal Blitz, Rapoport applied for her NFL internship by sending her résumé along with photo of herself in pads and a football. She wrote on the football with a Sharpie, What other quarterback could accurately deliver a football 386 miles?She got the internship.I was told it stood out among the other applicants, Rapoport said. 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Numbers Game looks into the Canadiens securing the services of Thomas Vanek in a trade with the New York Islanders. The Canadiens Get: LW Thomas Vanek and a conditional fifth-round pick. MOSCOW -- Russia has appealed a ban of its track and field team from next months Olympics in Rio de Janeiro over doping, the countrys Olympic committee said Sunday.Russian Olympic Committee spokesman Konstantin Vybornov confirmed that the appeal had been filed with the Court of Arbitration for Sport and would be heard July 19.If Russia wins, the Olympic application deadline will be extended to let Russian athletes apply, the ROCs legal department head Alexandra Brilliantova told the Tass news agency.The case is being brought jointly by the ROC and dozens of top Russian athletes.The IAAF, tracks world governing body, suspended Russia in November after a World Anti-Doping Agency report detailed widespread, state-sponsored doping in Russian track and field. The ban was upheld by the IAAF in a vote last month.The IAAF ban allows a small number of Russians to compete at the Rio Olympics if they can show they have been based outside the country and subject to testing from a respected, non-Russian anti-doping agency.Brilliantova said Sunday that she believed only two Russians woulld fit the criteria out of more than 80 who have applied to the IAAF.ddddddddddddWhile Brilliantova did not name the duo, they are likely to be U.S.-based long jumper Daria Klishina, who is a two-time European indoor champion, and Italy-based pole vaulter Alyona Lutkovskaya.In addition, the IAAF has already approved an application from Russian athlete and doping whistleblower Yulia Stepanova, whose testimony of doping within the Russian team, including undercover footage of apparent doping confessions, formed an important part of the evidence against Russia in the WADA investigation.Stepanova is due to return to competition next week at the European championships, racing in the 800 meters as a neutral athlete not representing a particular country.European Athletics said Sunday that athletes at the championships would wear bibs with messages such as I run clean, I jump clean and I throw clean in a statement against performance-enhancing drug use. 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