When the owner of DC’s women’s tackle football team, Washington Prodigy, isn’t at a game, Tiffany Matthews is hard at work at the Alexandria Fire Department. Ahead of the team’s spring season, Matthews talked with Northern Virginia Magazine about her goals for the team and how she balances her two roles.
Does your work as a firefighter influence your work with the team or vice versa?
Absolutely. They’re both team-dynamic positions. And as a firefighter, you know, we have to work as a team. Our common goal is for everyone to go home, everyone needs to stay alive to either help someone with their life or to keep our lives safe, and we have to work as a team to do that, so it’s a pretty easy transition. In football, of course, we cannot win [without teamwork], and there’s no individual — we have to work as a team.
How do you balance the two?
The support that I have coming from both ends, from my football family as well as my fire family, is great. That’s what really kept me going. And I just — I just do it. It’s almost like a calling, or my purpose.
What do you want to see for the future of women’s football?
I would love to see women get paid. And I don’t think that people think about the work that goes into this. The time, the effort — [we’re] very deserving to have that. We do the same thing, knowing we’re not getting paid millions of bucks. Just seeing, again, the work and the effort and everything that’s put into making this — and playing the sport, not just making it happen, not even as ownership, but the players — to get some sort of compensation, that will be great for women’s football.
What are your goals for the team as the season starts this month?
My main goal is to win the championship. That’s our goal. However, also, to keep the love going. Honestly, our motto is ‘Prodigy on three, family on six.’ And that’s what we start every practice with and end every practice. Because that’s what it’s about, really, at the end of the day: being safe, being happy, doing what you love, and winning along the way. And someone has to win; someone has to lose. At the end of the day, as long as you have each other, I am happy, and I know that my players are happy.
The Prodigy’s season starts April 6. Get tickets at washingtonprodigy.com.
Feature image of Tiffany Matthews talking to players courtesy Washington Prodigy
This story originally ran in our April issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
