Some people talk about changing the world. Odessa Jenkins — affectionately known as OJ — actually went and did it. Against every doubt, every closed door, and every brand executive who told her the world was not ready, she built the Women’s National Football Conference (WNFC) from the ground up and turned it into the largest professional women’s football league in the United States. Seven years after launching, the league is growing faster than ever, and Jenkins is nowhere near done.
Odessa Jenkins and the WNFC: Building the Largest Professional Women’s Football League in America
When Jenkins first started pitching the WNFC to brands, she made a bold promise — that within three years, the league would have a hundred million eyeballs, a TV deal, national press, and real sponsorship dollars. The response she got was less than encouraging. Brands told her the world was not ready for women’s tackle football and suggested she aim smaller or try a different sport entirely. She kept going anyway.
Today, one of those same doubters is a paying partner. The WNFC has secured multi-year deals with Adidas, a returning partnership with Dove, and coverage from ESPN — not as a one-off experiment, but as a league worth coming back to. Jenkins has been keeping score, and the numbers tell a story that no one can argue with. Week one of the 2026 season already showed a 40 percent jump in ticket sales across the league — the metric she cares about most, because it means real people are showing up.
From South Central Los Angeles to the Sidelines of the NFL: The Making of OJ
To understand where Jenkins is going, you have to understand where she came from. She grew up in South Central Los Angeles, where she lost her brother to gang violence. Sports became the one steady thread that kept pulling her forward, eventually earning her a Division 1 scholarship to Cal Poly. That early discipline and drive never left her.
After college, Jenkins built a successful career in healthcare technology, landing on the executive team at YourCause — a company that was later acquired by Blackbaud for $157 million. But football kept calling her back. She entered the women’s game in 2008 and became the number one ranked running back in the world. She later earned one of the first on-field NFL coaching positions ever given to a woman, through the Bill Walsh Diversity Internship.
By the time she founded the WNFC in 2018, Jenkins had already built toward this moment from both sides of the game — as a player and as an executive. That rare combination of lived experience and business acumen is precisely what makes her approach to league-building so effective. She did not just show up to the table. She built the table.
Why Brands Keep Missing the Opportunity in Women’s Sports—and How Jenkins Proved Them Wrong
One of the most compelling parts of Jenkins’ story is her theory on why brands consistently underestimate women’s sports. She argues that most companies are still working from an outdated playbook, looking backward at what already worked in men’s sports rather than paying attention to where the culture is actually heading.
“When you look at the next 50 years of what sports and entertainment is going to look like, it’s going to be more heavily female. More women than ever, more women of color. So if that isn’t a part of your investment thesis as a brand and as an investor, then you’re going to miss the majority.”
Jenkins backed that conviction with strategy. One of her earliest moves was going straight after Riddell — the same helmet company that supplies the NFL and NCAA. The logic was simple and smart: if the first major partnership attributed to the WNFC was a name that everyone in football already trusted, it would immediately validate the league in the eyes of sponsors and fans alike. It worked. The Instagram following snowballed from 10 million engaged to 50 million, and eventually to a hundred million, with press and brand deals following close behind.
Representation at Every Level: Building a League That Reflects Its Players
Jenkins has never been shy about who she is building this league for. Around 65 percent of WNFC players identify as Black or Hispanic, and that is not an accident — it is a deliberate and proud design choice. For Jenkins, a bald Black lesbian woman leading a sport historically run by men who look nothing like her, representation is not a side note. It is the foundation.
“Women of color are represented in every phase of this business, every phase of this business. And it’ll stay that way as long as I’m here.”
That commitment extends beyond the field through the league’s nonprofit arm, Got Her Back, which shows up in communities like Oakland Tech and Watts to make sure Black and brown girls can see a future in football long before they ever go pro. Jenkins is not just building a league — she is building a pipeline, making sure the next generation of players grows up knowing the door is already open for them.
The Long-Term Vision: Living Wages, Millionaire Athletes, and a Future Bigger Than Any Franchise
When Jenkins talks about the future of the WNFC, she is not chasing valuations or franchise sales. Her vision is altogether more personal and more powerful than that. She wants to see the women who sacrificed to play this sport get paid what they deserve — not just a stipend, but a living wage, and eventually, life-changing money.
“Seeing these women getting paid a living wage to play the sport that they have sacrificed to play, seeing players become millionaires for playing this sport at the highest level, seeing these women and seeing girls wake up every single day and think about the idea of becoming professional quarterbacks and running backs and linebackers and defensive linemen and offensive tackles. That is the zoom out.”
That vision is rooted in the same place her entire journey began — in the belief that sports should have room for everyone, especially those who have historically been told otherwise. Jenkins started playing football because the sport had a place for her. She built the WNFC because she wanted to guarantee that same welcome for every woman who came after her. And given everything she has already accomplished against the odds, there is every reason to believe she will see that vision through.