The Buffalo Bills and Kathryn Smith made history Wednesday night.
The Bills hired Smith as their special teams quality control coach, making her the first full-time female coach in NFL history.
“Kathryn Smith has done an outstanding job in the seven years that she has worked with our staff,” Bills head coach Rex Ryan said in a statement. “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.”
“Kathryn has been working in a football administrative role and assisted the assistant coaches for years. She has proven that she’s ready for the next step, so I’m excited and proud for her with this opportunity. She will work with Danny Crossman and Eric Smith involving a number of responsibilities.”
Smith has spent 13 seasons working in the NFL, and her most recent job was as the Bills’ administrative assistant to the head coach in 2015. She got her start in the NFL as a New York Jets gameday/special events intern in 2003, and she ended up working for the organization for 12 seasons.
Her hiring comes less than year since the Arizona Cardinals hired Jen Welter as the league’s first female coach for training camp and the preseason.
“I consulted with (Cardinals head coach) 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 (Becky Hammon) 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.”
Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@SNFonNBC
