Bills announce hiring of full-time female assistant coach

The Arizona Cardinals made a bit of history during training camp when they hired a female coaching intern for the preseason.

But the Buffalo Bills are taking it one step further: on Wednesday night, the team announced that Kathryn Smith is the team’s new special-teams quality control coach, making her the first full-time assistant in the NFL.

It’s a low-level position, but it’s a start, and a position that many an NFL coach has held on his way up the coaching ladder.

Smith is well-known to Bills head coach Rex Ryan: she began her career with the New York Jets as a game day and college scouting intern, then became a player personnel assistant in 2007, a position she held for several years; Ryan was hired as head coach in 2009. In 2014, Smith changed positions and became assistant to the head coach.

When Ryan was fired by the Jets and hired a short time later by Buffalo, Smith followed him to Western New York, as administrative assistant to the head coach.

In a statement, Ryan said Smith is ready for the job change, and that he’d spoken to Cardinals’ coach Bruce Arians about having a female on staff.

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

“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 [special teams coordinator] Danny Crossman and [special teams assistant] Eric Smith involving a number of responsibilities.

“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 (Greg) Popovich at the San Antonio Spurs [Becky Hammon], and realize how exciting this is for women like Kathryn Smith as well as the Bills organization.”