Thank you, Collette Smith. https://t.co/xnh9GS3OPI
— safARI (@ariosier) May 26, 2017
The New York Jets hire their first female coach Collette Smith, who will work with the defensive backs.
The New York Jets are making history by hiring their first female coach.
According to Leonard Greene of the New York Daily News, the Jets are going to hire Collette Smith, who is a coach and marketing executive of the New York Shark of the Independent Women’s Football League. Before she was a coach she played for the Sharks for three years before a knee injury sidelined her. She will work with the defensive backs as a preseason intern.
“I’m over the top. I’m humbled and I’m proud,” she said. “This could have happened with any NFL team. But it just so happened that it was with my beloved New York Jets. This is bigger because of that. God forbid it would have been with the Patriots. But I still would have done it.”
Smith was able to shadow the Jets defensive backfield last year and met head coach Todd Bowles. Bowles could see that Smith was serious about football.
“He called over all the defensive backs,” the Queens native said. “He told them who I was and that I’d be hanging around from time to time. Everybody was polite and respectful.”
The lifelong Jets fan isn’t the first female coach in NFL history. Jen Welter, who is the first women to hold a coaching position in the NFL, was a preseason intern for the Arizona Cardinals and Kathryn Smith was a special team’s quality control coach for the Buffalo Bills, according to Jeremy Bergman of NFL.com.
“We as women carry a lot on our shoulders,” Smith said. “Right now, it happens to be football for me. This is a way for me to help empower women. Don’t dream small, play big and go for it. One day a woman will come to a football team, and it won’t be a big story. It’ll just be football. When that day comes I’ll be more honored and even more proud.”
The question now is will Smith be able to improve the Jets defense?
