The San Francisco 49ers have hired Katie Sowers as an offensive assistant.
Sowers is the second full-time female assistant coach and the first openly gay coach in the NFL.
She joined the Niners as part of their Bill Walsh NFL Coaching Diversity Fellowship in the spring. She had worked previously with coach Kyle Shanahan in 2016, when he was offensive coordinator in Atlanta.
"We plan on her assisting with the receivers," Shanahan said. "Katie did a real good job for us in Atlanta, she's done a really good job here. She helps [receivers coach] Mike LaFleur out, just with some rotations and she helps our quality control [coaches] out just with all the stuff they have to do. She's a hard worker, you don't even notice her because she just goes to work and does what's asked. Because of that, she's someone we'd like to keep around. We're still figuring out exact titles and stuff and what that aspect is, but she's done a good job for us two years in a row in camp and we'd like to have her help out throughout the year."
