Once the excitement from the Super Bowl LV settled, Tampa Bay Buccaneers social media coordinator Jill Beckman found her way back to her roots to share her successes.

Beckman was a determined journalism student at Penn State. Her four years in State College were spent continuously reporting anything she could get her hands on. By her sophomore year, she knew sports was exactly where she wanted to be. After reporting for the football team, she never looked back.

Her passion for reporting shifted the summer before her senior year. After many social and digital-focused internships, Beckman found that her determination for reporting was toward telling a team’s story.

Beckman spent her senior year taking more opportunities and getting her name out there. She joined Penn State in working alongside the NFL’s communications team at Super Bowl LII, which opened up networking with almost every NFL team.

Little did she know this would not be her last trip to the NFL’s postseason finale.

After learning about the social and digital departments among the league’s teams, Beckman was set to land a position within her expertise. During the spring of 2018, the last semester of her senior year, she secured an internship with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

After completing her program with the team, she scored a full-time social media coordinator position. To her, she was simply in the “right place at the right time.”

Currently, Beckman is in charge of posting daily on the team’s Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, and Facebook pages. She said she’s the brains behind “95% of posting the content” on Tampa Bay’s media sites. Every day, she tells a part of the team’s story.

Starting her full-time position in 2019, Beckman lived out her first season with the Bucs in places she had only dreamed of.

“We went to so many different places, including London,” Beckman said. “We basically traveled the world. This is a job where anything can happen at any given moment.”

After working alongside the Bucs for the normal 2019 season, 2020 had a different agenda. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, she worked at each home game in the press box rather than on the field. Before the season officially started, she knew just how interesting it was going to be.

“During training camp, I was one of the people who was there every day. I was around the team all the time, so I had to get tested every single day for about six weeks,” Beckman said. “Once the regular season started, I didn’t see them [face-to-face] until after the Super Bowl.”

Even though the pandemic restricted traveling and sideline social media coverage, Beckman has had a “wild journey” since joining the team as an intern in 2018.

“I never would have thought that when I joined the Bucs we would be in this position right now,” Beckman said. “Having Tom Brady as our quarterback, having won the Super Bowl all during the pandemic — it is just all surreal for me.”

Beckman said Tampa Bay’s recent Super Bowl run was especially fulfilling after spending nearly every waking moment with the team for almost three yeaas.

“It is a different level of investment for the team. It is so cool to see their progress,” Beckman said. “My first year, the Bucs were 5-11. To be around from that time until now, it is a very rewarding feeling.”

Now that the team is in the offseason, Beckman reflected on this year’s Super Bowl, and just how “nonstop” the job was this past season. Not only for the players, but for the media team behind the scenes.

She went into detail on what it’s like to actually work a Super Bowl. She was seated with the media in Raymond James Stadium, lined up with outlets and other Buccaneers social staff. The entire game, Beckman live-tweeted and posted updates on Facebook.

As soon as the game wrapped, she immediately went into posting content for her winning team.

“There were so many emotions. You have to find a balance for celebrating and hugging your co-workers. But at the same time, tweet and post the pictures and videos that were being live-transferred to us,” she said. “We would post something and then cry a little bit.”

From the players on the field to media managers, there is teamwork on all aspects of the Bucs. When they secured the Lombardi Trophy, it felt like everyone’s work had paid off.

At that point in her career, she said she’s never had “so many eyes” on the team’s account before.

After reminiscing all things college to Super Bowl highlights, Beckman shared a piece of advice from her at time at Penn State.

“If you are qualified to be in any position, no matter who you are, you deserve that position. Now, more than ever, people are realizing that,” Beckman said. “I have been lucky that from college until now. It has never mattered that I am a woman in sports. It should always be about my qualifications.”