Archives for January 2016

'The Bills deserve credit for hiring Smith and pulling sports farther into the 21st century.'

'Smith never played football and has never coached. I’ve read two books on Ryan and her name was never mentioned. But when a team has missed the playoffs for 16 straight years, any sort of progressive vision is welcome.'

'Turns out the Ryans were there for the same reason, the naturalization of one of the 60 immigrants taking the oath of citizenship on Thursday. She’s believed to be a family friend from Russia.'

'Penalties were a team-wide problem as the Bills committed 143 total, tied for the most in the NFL with Tampa Bay. On special teams, the Bills were flagged 25 times, third-most behind the Rams and Raiders.'

'And then last summer, Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians laid the ground work for the potential of women serving as coaches when he brought in Jen Welter as a part-time linebackers coach during their training camp. But this was a temporary position as some teams bring on extra coaching assistants during that time of year to deal with the much larger group of players on the rosters.'

'As a quality control coach, she'll spend a lot of her time breaking down film of Buffalo’s opponents and preparing reports for the head coach. Smith's new job title may not sound glamorous, but it's an important role for the Bills organization — and for breaking the coaching glass ceiling.

'"The amount of attention generated from this announcement in the past 24 hours has been extraordinary, however, my focus remains on my job responsibilities and helping the team win.'

'"There's no place for a woman in professional sports, in football, coaching men," Kiley said. "Men will not take to it. If you have 10 men on special teams, eight of them will be mumbling under their breath. It's counterproductive. You're setting her up to fail. It's not her fault, it's the idiot who hired her."'

'Naturally, the hire quickly became national news and plenty of people reacted on social media. Here's what people had to say about the Bills' historic hire…'.

'But this is a huge moment for merit winning out over gender bias. It’s also a pretty great teachable moment. If you have a son who thinks girls don’t play football or a daughter who ever wonders, rightly, why there are only men on teams, you’ll need to turn on a Bills game next season. Even if you don’t root for the team, it’s going to be easy to cheer for Kathryn Smith.'

'"If you have 10 men playing on special teams, eight of them will be mumbling under their breath," Kiley said. "It's counterproductive. You're setting her up to fail."'

'“They get along famously,” Robert Smith, Kathryn’s father, told the Post-Standard. “She likes him, he likes her. The fact that he asked her to go wherever he ended up is a big vote of confidence for her. She enjoys working for him very much.”'

'Smith said she appreciated expressions of support from members of the Bills and nationally in the wake of the news of her hiring. She singled out congratulatory tweets by Barbie and the Girl Scouts of America as “pretty cool.”'

'She couldn’t possibly be qualified to the same level that a man could be qualified to do that.'

'“It’s really just been an amazing opportunity more than anything. I got into sports. I got into football. Obviously, you want to grow your role. You want to go into the next thing. It’s an entry-level coaching position. I’m going to start here on the coaching track and go from here.”'