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Icon Sportswire / Contributor

Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes weren't the only ones set to make headlines in Super Bowl LV. If it's one thing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers know how to do -- other than run through opponents en route to an eventual victory in their Super Bowl LV matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs -- it's how to build a diverse staff. It's something Lori Locust and Maral Javadifar can attest to, both helping to blaze a trail that bursts through the gender wall usually present on NFL coaching staffs. For not only did the Super Bowl feature Sarah Thomas as the first-ever woman to officiate the Big Game, but Locust and Javadifar were ready to join her in the history books. 

The latter two own the roles of assistant defensive line coach and assistant strength and conditioning coach with the Buccaneers, respectively, and weren't taking their achievements for granted whatsoever, especially considering what they mean to so many.

They went on to put the Buccaneers in the record books for two reasons: being the first team to employ multiple female coaches in a Super Bowl and then going on to win that Super Bowl. 

"I feel extremely blessed to have this opportunity," Javadifar said at the outset of Super Bowl week, via the team's website. "And I know that 'Coach Lo' and Sarah [Thomas] feel the same way. I do look forward to the day when it's no longer newsworthy to be a woman working in the pros or making the Super Bowl for that matter. I hope we get to the point where all people are affording equal opportunity to work in professional sports."

The moniker "Coach Lo" is what Locust is called within the organization, and she echoed Javadifar's thoughts this week. Needless to say, the road for both Locust and Javadifar to get to where they are now was wrought with curves and obstacles, much more so than the ones generally faced by their male counterparts; and they both stand in solidarity regarding how they view their jobs.

To them, they're coaches, period.

"I think the nice thing about all of this right now is that kind of title doesn't matter," Locust told media. "M.J. (Maral Javadifar) and I are here to help Tampa Bay win. It wouldn't matter if we're second in or 273rd in -- we acknowledge the fact there hasn't been many before us but it's not anything we kind of keep in the forefront of what we do on a daily basis."

Both being exceedingly qualified to do their jobs, which includes Javadifar having the additional rarity of being one of only a few strength and conditioning coaches in the NFL who has a doctoral degree in physical therapy, they must balance being the trailblazers they are with all that comes with it -- which is to say every light has an accompanying shadow. For Locust and Javadifar, one such shadow lies in how -- from their standpoint -- it feels as if the world believes they appeared out of thin air when that's not the case.

There are stories like theirs budding as we speak, but, considered to be a part of the first wave through the NFL door, they understand what all comes with it. That said, Locust makes it clear there are more women on the way, and they'd probably be here already if not for the impact of COVID-19 in 2020. Just last year, offensive assistant Katie Sowers broke gender barriers by becoming the first female coach to make it to the Super Bowl with the San Francisco 49ers -- hopefully the trend only continues.

And while Sowers saw her team fall just short against the Chiefs one year ago, Locust and Javadifar were on the winning side the Patrick Mahomes equation.

"You have to understand there's a blessing and a curse with media coverage in regards to women coaches," Locust said. "Because what it looks like sometimes is that we've just sprung up out of nowhere, whereas there are hundreds of women that are at various levels of football whether high school, college, semi-pro and they've been kind of out there doing it on their own and earning those positions on their own without any help from anyone else. 

" ... I feel if Covid hadn't hit you'd have seen so many more women in the league this year, whether internships or straight hires. I think that it's just shining a light now back on the women that are already out there."

Time will tell who'll join them in the NFL ranks for the 2021 season and beyond but, as for now, it was the Bucs making history in all the right ways on Sunday. When factoring this in with the depth of African-American roots also present on Bruce Arians' staff -- Tampa Bay has set a bar most other teams have been seemingly allergic to for a long time now.

And it helped them hoist their first Lombardi trophy in nearly 20 years.