Rex Ryan discusses coaching changes

The Buffalo Bills called for a press conference on Friday to discuss recent coaching changes, including the promotion of Kathryn Smith, who became the NFL’s first female full-time coach.

“It doesn’t shock me, but at the same time it’s shocking to see her face associated with this”, said St. John’s assistant coach Matt Abdelmassih, who worked with Smith as a team manager. He said she will be holding hold a “very important” position with the team.

According to ESPN, Smith had previously served as an administrative assistant to head coach Rex Ryan, both with the Bills and during his final season with the New York Jets in 2014. Chelsea Clinton took notice by posting a note on Twitter.

Ryan further revealed that he actually consulted and talked to Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians about the plan of hiring Smith.

Ryan offered the media information on what it is like to work with Smith.

Pegula issued the statement a day after the Bills broke the league’s gender barrier by promoting Smith to be their special teams quality control coach.

The Buffalo Bills didn’t make the playoffs, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t stayed out of the news. “I think the benefit of someone like (Smith) is that women all over the country can say, ‘If she can achieve those things, then I should stick it out and achieve them as well”‘.

And she got her coaching break because of Ryan, who first recognized Smith’s potential when he was hired as the Jets coach in 2009.

Although Bogdan had the benefit of being the owner’s daughter, it could also be said that the path she traveled to becoming a club executive was somewhat humbling in its own right.

“If you can help a player that is all they are interested in”, Ryan said when asked about the remarks. She groomed the new team managers in her later years, serving as a mentor. And as hard as it might be to believe, her fellow scouts on the Bills and other teams seemed to do just that.

“I was making some turkey nachos with my son and the phone was ringing and I saw that it was Rex Ryan”, Reed said on Inside the NFL.

“She does not have filed experience per se, I get that, there’s no question about it. But I know she is going to excel in the other areas of being a quality control coach and I think she is going to be successful on the field as well”, said Ryan. This isn’t the first time that a woman has been put in the spotlight in men’s professional sports team.