Touchdown: The NFL Hires its First Full-Time Female Coach

Key professional sports roles are finally getting an overdue dose of estrogen.

Though they’re still small in number, these pioneering women of the pro sport world are strong in influence.

In the past year and a half, the NFL, NBA, and Major League Baseball have made headlines in their hiring of high-ranking females. These include the first female full-time NFL official, the first female assistant coaching intern in the NFL, the first female instructor employed by a Major League team, and the first female to be an assistant coach for an NFL team.

Yesterday, another woman joined the ranks when the Buffalo Bills added Kathryn Smith to their special teams staff as the first full-time female assistant coach in NFL history. Smith will serve as a special teams quality control coach.

Naturally, Smith is no stranger to the business of the game.

She served as the administrative assistant to head coach Rex Ryan this season, and worked for the New York Jets for the past 12 years, the final six of which include working with Ryan as Jets head coach.

“Kathryn Smith has done an outstanding job in the seven years that she has worked with our staff,” 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.”

The move comes after the Arizona Cardinals hired Jen Welter as their inside linebackers coach during last summer’s training camp.

In a traditionally testosterone-driven and male dominated industry, such changes are some of the most progressive examples of gender equality in recent years – and that scores major points with us.

[ad_bb1]