Dom Capers Wife Karen Capers Is A Former Flight Attendant

Dom Capers wife Karen Capers worked as a flight attendant for 23 years before opening their football coaching center.

They married in June 1994, two years after their first date in Pittsburgh in 1992. Three years later, in June 1997, Dome and Karen went on a vacation to the Cayman Islands. After his trip, he was scheduled to be at Wofford for training camp.

When he met Karen, Ernest Dominic Capers, who was named after his great-grandfather of Italian origin, had just secured the position as the defensive coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers. In fact, it was on a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Pittsburgh in 1992 that he met the blonde flight attendant Karen Grupp. 

Dom’s first marriage had recently dissolved at the time, and he took an immediate interest in the blonde-haired beauty. Karen too noticed his chivalrous demeanor when he smiled at her but did not order her to stuff his heavy carry-on in the overhead bins, like every other passenger on the plane.

“A lot of people give us these two-hundred-pound bags and say, ‘Here hang it!’, but not him”, Karen recalls. 

The two struck up a conversation and by the end of the flight, they had set up a date a few weeks down the road. Karen lived in Chicago at the time and Dom, who is originally from Ohio, lived in Pittsburgh. They agreed on meeting in Pittsburg, seeing how Karen could probably get a free flight into town, and the rest is history. 

Despite having a long and strong marriage today, the couple’s relationship got off to a rocky start. Dom had set up their first date at 5 PM and planned to pick her up from the airport at 4:30. However, just as he was about the leave the Steelers offices, then head coach Bill Cowher walked in and started talking about their team’s defense. Having recently started the job and wanting to make a good impression, Dom stayed for nearly 2 hours talking to Bill while his darling date waited for him. 

Around 7 PM, he finally made it to the airport to find Karen patiently waiting for him. “I had talked to him enough to know that he wasn’t the kind of person who would stand you up,” Karen said. After that initial blunder of a first date, the couple tries to go on a dinner date just about every Friday. The two spend a nice evening having an early dinner or hitting the movie theater.

During the initial days of their marriage, the couple saw very little of each other, given Dom’s extreme dedication to his sport, and Karen’s unusual flying hours. At the peak of his coaching days at the Steelers, Dom saw his partner at home for only 4 hours. “It just goes to show you how much you actually don’t need a house,” he joked. 

Not much is known about the personal lives of Dom and Karen. The couple does not have any known social media.

Today, Dom Capers is a household name in the houses that love NFL. Throughout high school and college, he himself played American football as a linebacker and defensive tackle. Since he began his coaching career in 1972, Dom has coached nearly a dozen NFL teams, the most recent being the Denver Broncos. 

Karen is known to be a few years younger than Dom, but her exact age or birthday is not known. Even after twenty-eight years of marriage and Dom’s overly complicated and meticulous schedule, Karen has stayed by his side, cheering for whichever team he is coaching that season. 

Dom and Karen Capers have been married for 28 years and have not welcomed any children due to their busy schedules.

For them, football is their child. It takes up more time than any kids they would have given birth to. Dom and Karen donated $2 million to Mount Union for a college football facility that opened in 2020.

Mount Union College dedicated its coaching offices and football program meeting room in honor of Dom and Karen Capers. 

Thanks to a $2 million donation from the Capers, the second-largest in Mount Union Alumni history, a new facility for the college football team was made possible in 2020. The 5,600-square-foot building was named the “Dom and Karen Capers Football Coaching Center” after them in June 2022.

The alumni who played for Mount Union’s football team back in 1968-71 said, “Mount Union has always been very close to my heart. For the people who helped me along the way, it all started right here. I have so many fond memories of that.”

In addition to his old friends, some of whom are now staffers at various levels in the college, the football team was also very grateful for the Capers’ contributions. 

“Being able to access all the different technology provided in there, sit together and learn has been very important to my personal growth and very important to the defense, offense, and special teams. We are just very blessed and very thankful,” Purple Raiders ( NCAA Division III level football team) linebacker Mason McMillen said at the inauguration of the coaching center. 

This wasn’t the first time the couple made contributions for the betterment of the college. Back in 2013, they made generous donations for the remodeling of what is now the Dom Capers Press Box at Mount Union Stadium.

Dom is widely respected within the football community for his knowledge and experience and is considered one of the top defensive coaches in the league. His impact on NFL is irrefutable. While on the field, Dom is a ruthless brute, off-the-field, he is known to be a funny, humble, and generous man, partly due to his partner Karen.