Katie Sowers, an offensive assistant coach for the San Francisco 49ers, is a pioneer in the coaching ranks as the second female assistant in NFL history and the first who is openly gay.

Sowers is getting notice for her trailblazing career in a new ad for Microsoft’s Surface Pro computer, the device used by NFL teams at practice and during games. Sowers is featured in a new ad that first aired during Sunday’s Seattle Seahawks at Philadelphia Eagles wild card game and later during the “Golden Globes,” both on NBC.

“I’m not here to just be the token female. I’m here to help us win,” Sowers says in the ad. The ad makes no mention of her being a lesbian but it needn’t have done so. The ad campaign’s theme is making dreams come through and female coaches have been rare in the NFL and for the longest time simply not allowed. There have certainly been other gay or bi coaches in league history, but only Sowers has been out, and it would have been a bit clunky of a tagline to try and parse that in a 30-second ad.

When the ad ran during Sunday’s game, Outsports saw a spike in traffic for our 2017 story of Sowers coming out. She has been a terrific spokeswoman for both women and LGBTQ people trying to make their way in sports.

Her ad already inspired one girl’s dream and Sowers posted it on her Twitter feed despite the girl being dressed in gear of the rival Los Angeles Rams.

Loved your commercial, @KatieSowers! My ten year old daughter has the dream of playing football one day. She was smiling ear-to-ear watching your message! Here is a picture of her on Christmas morning with her new @RamsNFL throwback jersey & pants! We tell her to #dreambig! pic.twitter.com/4jZI2y4SRG — Nicole Malinoski, Ed. D. (@DrMalinoski) January 5, 2020

Sowers will get more national exposure Saturday when the top-seed 49ers host the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Divisional Playoffs on NBC. I guarantee Microsoft will run the ad at some point during the game.