BEREA, Ohio — Callie Brownson, a former intern for the Buffalo Bills, has been hired by the Browns as the chief of staff for the team's new head coach.
Brownson will work alongside head coach Kevin Stefanski in a similar role to the one Stefanki held when he worked under Brad Childress in 2006 with the Minnesota Vikings, according to the Browns.
A Browns representative confirmed because the chief of staff role includes aspects of coaching, she would be the first female coach for the Browns.
"I’m excited because Coach Stefanski is one of these up-and-coming coaches who has a lot of great ideas. He’s a progressive coach and he loves the game of football. He understands that football is ever-evolving, which is cool to be a part of on a staff like this,” Brownson said, according to the Browns. “We talked through it and he had this very specific vision for how he wanted this role to work out and how involved he wanted it to be, and to me it sounded like a phenomenal opportunity and I was very impressed with him and impressed with everyone in this building and I’m excited to be here.”
“I had the coaching skills and I was playing football so it made perfect sense. I had let society’s dialogue tell me that I hadn’t really thought about that ... “
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) January 31, 2020
Meet Callie Brownson, Chief of Staff for Head Coach Kevin Stefanski » https://t.co/NCdkIHarvw pic.twitter.com/BdYPMSnDVz
According to the Browns, Brownson played for the Women's Football Alliance D.C. Divas from 2010 to 2017 as a safety, running back and slot receiver. From 2015 to 2017 she also served as an assistant coach for Mount Vernon High School. In 2017, she joined the New York Jets as a personnel scouting intern and then in 2018 went on to be a coaching intern and offensive quality control coach at Dartmouth College, where she was the first full-time female coach in Division I history. From there, Brownson became a Buffalo Bills coaching intern.
According to the Browns, the experience Stefanski received while working under Childress was invaluable to jump-starting his career. Stefanski said the role was "very involved in every aspect of a football operation."
“Callie is uniquely situated where she can go interact with football ops or PR or the locker room or the equipment room. She's really the liaison to the rest of the building for me. I'm going to lean on her heavily and already have," Stefanski said, according to the Browns. “I think she's a go-getter. She's self-motivated. She's going to put all of her energy into this gig. What's exciting for me is ultimately I want to develop young coaches. She's someone that has worked on the offensive side of the ball, worked on special teams, has a great knowledge of the game and I want to let her expand that knowledge and develop her as a head coach.”
Brownson's position with the Bills had her working with the team as they progressed through the playoffs.
“I could get my hands as dirty as I wanted to,” Brownson said. “I was involved in the offensive side of the ball, the defensive side of the ball and I got to do a lot with the special teams. For me, not just someone who was trying to grow my resume, but grow your inner portfolio of things that I can do, that’s really what matters at the end of the day when you join a staff. What are you bringing to the table? How can you make us better as a staff which ultimately makes us better as a team?”
