The NFL has taken the initiative to help minorities receive coaching opportunities in the NFL through the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship. Another initiative surpasses just the realm of coaching.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have already announced several college coaches that have been accepted with the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship, but it was announced via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Pitt medical student Warren Austin will also be joining the Steelers during training camp as part of the NFL’s Diversity in Sports Medicine Pipeline Initiative.
Austin is a third-year medical student at the University of Pittsburgh who grew up in Carrick, a neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Austin will serve a one-month clinical rotation with the Steelers during training camp, working with the Steelers’ medical staff during their time in Latrobe.
The NFL started the Diversity in Sports Medicine Pipeline Initiative last year as a means to increase diversity in sports medicine and encourage minorities to pursue careers in sports medicine. This program allows medical students to meet the requirements of a clinical rotation while working with the orthopedic team physicians, primary care team physicians and athletic trainers of the team they are stationed with as they more of an understanding of the structure of sports medicine as well as learn important return to play guidelines for various injuries.
Austin graduated from Central Catholic High School and Pitt, being a yinzer through and through. A Steelers fan since birth, Warren sees this opportunity to work with his childhood team as well as pursue a career in orthopedics thanks to the diversity initiative the NFL put in place to help him acquire such an opportunity.
“I was ecstatic,” Austin said, according to Anya Sostek of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “I feel grateful and excited to be part of the program.”
