Updated 7:11 p.m. 

The Washington Football Team has named Jason Wright as its new president, the first Black individual in that role in the history of the NFL.

Wright, who played for Northwestern University before a seven-season stint in the NFL, retired in 2011 from the Arizona Cardinals to pursue an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School. He recently served as a partner at consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

“It’s personal, an opportunity to bring together my two worlds in a really unique way at a really unique time,” Wright said on Good Morning America on Monday. “And the fact that I happen to be Black and the most qualified person for this is a boost.”

When asked what it means to be the first Black president in the NFL, Wright told DCist/WAMU it’s an opportunity to celebrate and recognize others before him who paved the way.

“It’s unique in the NFL that the majority of the on-field talent is Black and to have a Black leader on the nonfootball side I think just opens the aperture on people’s thinking, and even individual thinking, on, you know, what’s possible for Black athletes and what they can accomplish,” he said.

It’s a summer marked by change for the Washington Football Team. In the past month, it announced it’s dropping its longstanding name after years of controversy, and more than a dozen women said they were sexually harassed while employed by the team.

“There are actual shifts in action that suggest it’s a new day,” Wright said, noting on the program that the team has hired an independent investigator to examine the harassment allegations. “Coach [Ron] Rivera’s talked a lot about this on the football side: establishing a new culture, a new way of operating, rooted in values around inclusion and transparency. That’s exactly what we’re going to do on the business side.”

The former running back played for the San Francisco 49ers, Atlanta Falcons, Cleveland Browns and Cardinals before his retirement. As president, Wright fills a nearly nine-month vacancy; former Washington Football Team president Bruce Allen was fired late last year after a decade with the team. Wright takes on the mantle next week and will oversee the team’s business operations, including finances and marketing.

“If I could custom-design a leader for this important time in our history, it would be Jason,” team owner Dan Snyder said in a press release. “His experience as a former player, coupled with his business acumen, gives him a perspective that is unrivaled in the league.”

In an interview with DCist/WAMU, Wright said he wants the team’s new identity to be informed by changes the community and fans want to see.

“We have a new identity to establish,” he said, “And I say identity more than just name or logo or mascot or whatever you want to call it, because it actually is the establishment of a new identity in the way that we will engage with the community, in the way that we construct the fan experience, in the way that we operate internally in our own culture.”

This story has been updated with additional comments from Jason Wright.