Bills Hire First Female Full-time Coach, NFL News

The Buffalo Bills made history Wednesday by hiring the NFL's first female full-time coach, naming Kathryn Smith as a special teams quality control coach.

Smith served as the administrative assistant to head coach Rex Ryan this season after working for 12 years for the New York Jets, including the final six with Ryan as Jets head coach.

"Kathryn Smith has done an outstanding job in the seven years that she has worked with our staff," Ryan said in a statement. "She certainly deserves this promotion based on her knowledge and strong commitment, just to name a couple of her outstanding qualities, and I just know she's going to do a great job serving in the role of Quality Control-Special Teams."

"Kathryn has been working in a football administrative role and assisted the assistant coaches for years. She has proven that she's ready for the next step, so I'm excited and proud for her with this opportunity. She will work with [special teams coordinator] Danny Crossman and [special teams assistant] Eric Smith involving a number of responsibilities."

Smith's hiring comes after the Arizona Cardinals hired Jen Welter to serve as their inside linebackers coach during training camp last summer.

Patriots' Fleming Rescues Woman

New England Patriots reserve linebacker Darius Fleming played in Saturday's divisional-round win over the Kansas City Chiefs with 22 stitches in his right leg, saying it was a result of rescuing a woman from a smoking car a mile away from Gillette Stadium two days earlier.

Fleming, a fourth-year player out of Notre Dame, drew a large media crowd in the locker room Wednesday as word of his story became public through the Facebook page of his high school.

The 26-year-old Fleming said a large truck made an unexpected right turn on Route 1 while he was driving away from Gillette Stadium, which he said led to three cars colliding in front of his vehicle.

The Walpole police said Wednesday that there was a three-car incident Thursday afternoon and that two of the cars had be towed from the scene but there were no injuries reported.

"I was about to go around it, but I noticed the lady in front of me, she kind of was jumping around the car, passenger seat, back seat, and I noticed smoke building up inside the car," Fleming recalled. "I tried to open the doors and it wouldn't work. So then I was just like, 'I have to get her out of here. I don't know if this lady can breathe or what.'

"I started banging on the window. It wouldn't break. So then I started to kick in the window and eventually it broke."

The Walpole police said that "there was no fire involved in this crash however there was air bag deployment, which to the untrained eye can appear as if the vehicle is enveloped in smoke."

One of the officers at the scene indicated that one of the cars had a broken window and "the operator of that vehicle did make statements to one officer that a male party 'kicked in my window, I think he was a Patriot.' This was not entered into the report as this was a standard motor vehicle crash report with no injury.

"On arrival the individual in question was not on scene and due to the nature of the accident there was no follow up to this information as the identity to an unknown good Samaritan had no bearing on this report. We are attempting to obtain more information at this time and will follow up with another release should we learn more," the Walpole police said in the statement.

In a later statement, the Walpole police said the woman in the car in question, who wishes to remain anonymous, returned their call at 4:50 p.m. ET to give more detail on the incident.

"She said that due to the nature of the accident her vehicle lost power and she could not get out. At that time a male who she believed to be a patriot approached the passenger side and indicated to her that he would kick in the passenger side window which he did. She then crawled over to the passenger side and the unknown male assisted her in climbing out of the window.

"She said she did not recognize the player and did not realize that he was hurt at the time. She said that she would like to remain anonymous but that she would like to express her thanks to the individual who came to her aid," the police said in the statement.

Rams Have Collected Season Ticket Deposits

The Rams say they have collected over 45,000 season ticket deposits in just two days for their upcoming return next season to Los Angeles.

The Rams announced the results of their initial season ticket push Wednesday night.

The refundable deposits entitle fans to a spot in a virtual waiting line to purchase up to eight season tickets apiece for the Rams' first season back at the Coliseum after 21 years in St. Louis.

The deposits also entitle fans to a spot on the waiting list for season tickets at the palatial Inglewood stadium currently being built by Rams owner Stan Kroenke. The stadium is projected to open in 2019.

The Rams plan to continue the deposit campaign through Feb. 8.

The nation's second-largest market, Los Angeles has been without an NFL team since 1994.