The Los Angeles Rams will be undergoing a number of changes this year. While the players and coaches on the sideline will look different, so will the sideline itself.
The Rams will finally get to call SoFi Stadium home for the upcoming season. Of course, moving to a new stadium is not easy work.
To help assist with that, the Rams promoted Sophie Luoto to director of football operations.
Luoto had been with the Rams for four years before her big promotion, and now is in charge of many of the Rams day-to-day football operations, the biggest one presently being the move to SoFi Stadium. Luoto entered into history by becoming one of the few female top football executives.
For Luoto, she knows that it was her work ethic that made her a candidate for the job, via Sydney Ringdahl of TheRams.com:
“It means that our leadership, both the men and the woman, in our organization trust and believe in me and thought that I was the best candidate for the position, which didn’t matter whether I was female or male, but instead the best candidate for the role.”
Luoto stated that she did not ask for the promotion but just worked hard enough to earn the opportunity. Now, she will be tasked with overseeing much of the Rams logistical operations, including team and staff travel, facility operations and coordination of player visits. Luckily, she has had plenty of experience to prepare for this role.
Luoto previously worked in both the UCLA and Cal football programs. At Cal, she started in the scouting department and quickly became involved in operations. Once she was hired by the Rams, she was more involved in business operations as she worked directly under Rams COO Kevin Demoff.
With skills on both the business and football sides of things, Luoto is prepared to tackle any challenges the team might face:
“I think the biggest piece of operations is always thinking ahead while also being flexible enough to fix in the moment,” Luoto said. “The [operations] team is really going to try to make sure that everything is set up for the most success for our team and also with being flexible enough to ensure that we can always find solutions when we need to for the entire organization.”
With the NFL Draft, free agency and the transition to a new stadium all on the horizon, Luoto will have her hands full. Thankfully, throughout her years in the sport, she has shown that she will work hard and make the right decision.
