According to a report from Pro Football Talk, the Buffalo Bills have hired Kathryn Smith to be the team’s new special teams quality control coach.
Smith will be the first full-time female assistant coach in NFL history.
This comes a year after the Arizona Cardinals hired Jen Welter to serve as an assistant coach during training camp and the preseason. She was in charge of working with the team’s inside linebackers.
While Smith’s assignment is about as low-level as it gets, it does signify yet another progression from a league that has in the past favored a machismo culture.
Smith previously worked as an administrative assistant for head coach Rex Ryan in Buffalo last season. It’s the very same position she held during Ryan’s final season with the New York Jets.
As avenues continue to open for women in the professional sports world, the hope here is that like hires in the future are commonplace.
The NBA has two full-time assistant coaches with Becky Hammon in San Antonio and Nancy Lieberman in Sacramento.
The NFL may not be too far away from having women in such high-profile positions. The reported hiring of Smith by Buffalo is the latest example of this.