Serena Williams joins Caitlin Clark to talk women’s sports with NFL

How’s this for a doubles team? Former World No. 1 and 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams teamed up with WNBA star Caitlin Clark to talk up the value of women’s sports to one of the most lucrative leagues in the world: the National Football League.

Clark and Williams recently visited Palm Beach, Fla. alongside two-time Super Bowl champion Eli Manning to participate in a panel dubbed “The Changing Face of Sports and Its Impact on the NFL,” where Williams spoke frankly to NFL owners: Nothing has changed in regards to the talent and skill of female athletes; women’s sports are now “finally” getting the respect they deserve.

“I think that we’ve had so many amazing women athletes for so long, but you guys just noticed, and that’s all it is,” Williams said, speaking to NFL team owners. She also noted that she and sister, Venus Williams, often out-drew men’s tennis in television viewership when they played.

“The men just finally noticed that women have been amazing for 50 years, 60 years,” she said.

Since retiring, Williams has turned her attention to investments through her venture capital firm, Serena Ventures — but her sporting interests haven’t taken a back seat in her overall portfolio. Since 2020, she, her husband Alexis Ohanian, and their first-born daughter Olympia have been members of the ownership group of Angel City FC in the National Women’s Soccer League, and in March, she was announced as the newest member of the ownership group behind the Toronto Tempo, which will begin play in the WNBA in 2026.

Williams also credited current generation of athletes like Clark with growing the platform for women’s sports even further. She joked that the 23-year-old, who was named the 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year, would’ve been a great flag football player — a non-tackle version of football that will make its debut at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, and something that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said “is generating a lot of interest” for both women and men.

“It’s just investing in us,” Williams continued. “When we see what it does, investing in women, what we can do, there’s an opportunity there for lots of growth.”

Calling her “the GOAT,” Goodell said Williams “not just understands women’s sports, she understands business and sports and, I think, society.”