The Buffalo Bills have made NFL history today as they have hired the first full time female NFL coach in the NFL.
Kathryn Smith is to serve as the Bills special teams quality control coach and will officially be the first full time female assistant coach in NFL history. The Arizona Cardinals brought in Jen Welter last summer to be the inside linebackers coach during training camp but her assignment only continued until the end of training camp.
Smith served as an administrative assistant to Rex Ryan in 2015 and spent most of her career with the New York Jets. In fact, Smith spent 12 years with the Jets in various roles, 6 of those years was while Ryan was the head coach. She joined the Jets in 2003 as a gameday/special events intern before she became a college scouting intern in 2005.
She was made a player assistant in 2007 and then finally was an assistant to Rex Ryan in 2014. Smith will be replacing former special teams quality control coach Michael Hemlin.
This is not the first time the Bills have explored crossing gender barriers in the coaching world, in 1986 the Bills brought in the first female scout Linda Bogdan who just so happened to be the daughter of Ralph Wilson.
