Five years ago, if you would have told Abbey Paduano, the current Colgate Football Director of Operations, that she would be standing in a room with Roger Goodell and hundreds of NFL staff members at the 2024 Women's Forum, she would have called you crazy. 

But the college hockey player turned operations extraordinaire has carved out a promising future in the football world. Through years of hard work, dedication, and commitment, her perseverance culminated in a trip to Indianapolis earlier this year where she was one of 40 women working in college athletics selected to attend the 2024 NFL Women's Forum.

"When I joined Colgate Football as the director of football operations, I was so fearful that I couldn't do the job and that I would disappoint a lot of people," Paduano said. "But now fast forward two years and I'm at the 2024 NFL Women's Forum. To be there made me realize that the hard work I put in and the faith I had in myself was all worth it." 

The invite-only Forum is one of the few programs worldwide that connects women in college football with NFL owners, head coaches, and club executives during a day-long networking event.

"It was amazing because I was in a hotel ballroom with NFL head coaches, player personnel representatives, owners and operations staff and I could talk to whoever I wanted," Paduano said. "The whole time I was there I kept thinking about how I got here because I never planned to work in football."

Paduano spent two days rubbing elbows with the NFL's finest, including Commissioner Goodell and all 12 of the current full-time female coaches in the National Football League. For the first time in history, all 12 of the accomplished women sat together on a panel where they discussed the best ways to navigate the male-dominated sports industry, and Paduano had a front row seat. 

"History was made at that moment, having all of the NFL's female coaches on that stage at one time," Paduano said. "The information they shared was incredible. Not even just what it is like to be a woman in this field but how to succeed and thrive." 

"It was a surreal moment," she continued. "I didn't realize how important that was until I saw a photo afterward and thought, 'Wow, I was there. That moment is going to be in history forever and I was there to witness it.'" 

Paduano's road to the Forum was paved with speed bumps, potholes, and dead ends. As a student-athlete at the State University of New York (SUNY) Cortland majoring in Sport Facility and Event Management, she long believed her future would lay in the field she was studying. 

While touting number 12 for the SUNY Cortland women's hockey team, Paduano was also working with Nexus as a Facilities Intern working primarily on the Adirondack Bank Center project. 

"I loved that job. I helped build that arena alongside the vice president of operations, but then COVID hit and the sports industry shut down."

With her career in facilities management on hold, Paduano persisted by working part-time customer service jobs to make ends meet while pursuing her Master's degree in human resources at Albany Law School. 

It was not long before Colgate University came knocking, and she picked up another internship in an adjacent field as an athletics event and marketing coordinator. 

"I gained a lot of experience in that position and met a lot of great people at Colgate," Paduano said. "Working that job made me realize that I wanted my next job to be with a team because I enjoyed building relationships with student-athletes."

As her role in athletics marketing came to an end, Paduano sought a full-time position in a field that more closely resonated with her passion. As fate would have it, Colgate Football's director of operations (DFO) position became vacant after Paduano's predecessor took a new job at Ole Miss on their operations staff. 

However, the lifelong hockey fan had hesitations about working in football where she had little to no experience or familiarity with the game. The three-time varsity letter winner on SUNY Cortland's women's ice hockey team was looking to blend her extensive hockey background with her passion for working in the world of athletics operations.

Paduano's wish was quickly answered. She soon began fielding job offers from other collegiate hockey teams in addition to Colgate Football's DFO position. After two years of hardship, she was met with a career altering decision. 

"I was at a pivotal moment in my life where I was finishing my master's and was presented with two options. One job is comfort. I know hockey. I can coach it. I can play it. I know everything about the game. But football, I didn't know a thing. I didn't know how they traveled or how they operated. I also did not have any experience organizing a program of over 100 people."

Now entering her third season as the director of football operations, Paduano was also recently honored with an Individual Staff Excellence Award by Colgate University for her accomplishments in successfully operating a Division I football program. She has become a staple of the Colgate Football family, making a lasting impression on coaches, alumni and student-athletes alike. 

"I'm forever grateful to the people and connections I made along the way to help me get to where I am today, especially working with Head Coach Stan Dakosty. He is the reason I'm working in football, and I owe a lot to him for having faith in me and helping me find my passion.""All the great work I'm doing now at Colgate Football is not just because of me, it's because of the people I surround myself with on a daily basis."