The Buffalo Bills have announced that Kathryn Smith has been named the team's quality control-special teams coach, which makes her the first female to be named to a full-time NFL coaching position in the league's history, according to the Bills' team website.
"Kathryn Smith has done an outstanding job in the seven years that she has worked with our staff," said Bills head coach Rex Ryan, via the Bills' team website. "She certainly deserves this promotion based on her knowledge and strong commitment, just to name a couple of her outstanding qualities, and I just know she's going to do a great job serving in the role of Quality Control-Special Teams."
The Cardinals were the first to make a move of this nature, as they appointed the first female coach last summer. Arizona hired Jen Welter as an assistant coaching intern for both training camp and the preseason, and she worked as an inside linebackers coach. "I consulted with Bruce Arians on this since he was really the first NFL head coach to make this kind of move when he hired a female linebackers coach through the summer. You can see the success some of these young ladies are having in the coaching profession, such as the young lady that is an assistant to coach (Gregg) Popovich at the San Antonio Spurs, and realize how exciting this is for women like Kathryn Smith as well as the Bills organization," said Ryan, via the Bills' team website.
Becky Hammon of the San Antonio Spurs was the first female head coach of an NBA Summer League team in 2015, and both the NFL and NBA are clearly making strides for gender equality in their sports. Major League Baseball is also making strides as the Oakland Athletics made Justine Siegal the first woman to hold a coaching position back in September.
Smith will be in her 14th year in the NFL this upcoming season, and she joins Buffalo's coaching ranks after serving as the team's administrative assistant in 2015. Smith worked with the New York Jets for 12 seasons before joining the Bills and has worked her way up the NFL ladder form gameday/special events intern, to college scouting intern, to assistant to head coach, to now having a full-time coaching position.
