The National Football League (NFL)- the most popular sports league in the United States, with 32 teams, and over 1,696 players- a league predominantly dominated by men- now has its first female coach. The Buffalo Bills announced on its website Wednesday, January 20, that they had hired Kathryn Smith as a special-teams quality-control coach.
Smith was previously employed for the New York Jets in various departments over the past 13 years; first starting as an intern in 2003 before moving to the team’s player personnel department in 2007. In 2015, she joined the Buffalo Bills as an administrative assistant to head coach Rex Ryan–for whom she had worked for in New York when he was head coach.
Smith has been a part of Ryan’s staff for the past seven years and has proven that she is more than just a pretty face. The Bills owner Kim Pegula, who co-owns the team with her husband Terrence, told the Associated Press in an interview, “While we understand the significance of this announcement, it’s important to understand that Kathryn earned this position because she has shown she is qualified, dedicated and puts in the work needed for this role.”
Smith’s role for the Bills will be to assist in special teams game-planning and player development. “Special teams” is the name for the unit of players on the field for kicking plays, like field-goal attempts and punt returns. She is replacing Michael Hamlin, a former NFL player.
There are a number of women in high-ranking positions in NFL front offices, but Smith is the first to have a full-time role on the field. It’s much-needed progress for the “manliest” of American sports leagues, but it’s still a league that often ignores—if not demeans—its female fans, who account for almost half of the NFL’s 150 million supporters.
“Men and women should be equal in everything whether it’s salary, jobs, etc. She clearly earned the title and I hope this inspires other leagues and teams to not increase the sexism that is already so high in sports, but to change for the better” Asma Ahmed, sophomore, said.
Elsewhere in American sports, women have increasingly had their voices heard. Last year, the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association (NBA) made Becky Hammon the head coach of its summer league team, she promptly led the team to a championship in 2014. Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Seattle Mariners hired Amanda Hopkins as a full-time scout—the first female to hold that position in the league since 1955.
“Although football is a ‘guy’ sport, with mostly male coaching staffs and members, it’s nice to see that there is a change coming to sports. This is long overdue but a great change” Meerab Kaleem, senior, said.
With all the advancements that these sports leagues are doing to promote equality between males and females, maybe women in athletics will finally get the respect that they so greatly deserve.
