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The Cleveland Browns game against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday took on historic significance with the announcement that Chief of Staff Callie Brownson will coach the tight ends on an interim basis.
Brownson will fill in for tight ends coach Drew Petzing, who will miss the game as he is staying with his wife, Louisa, who gave birth to their first child on Saturday morning.
Browns Chief of Staff, Callie Brownson, will handle Petzing's gameday responsibilities.
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) November 28, 2020
When Brownson takes the field at TIAA Bank Field, she will become the first female interim position coach in league history, according to Sam Rapoport, the league’s senior director of diversity and inclusion.
Breaking news:@Browns Chief of Staff @CalBrown17 becomes the 1st interim female positional coach in @NFL history when she takes over the TE Coach game day responsibilities tmrw vs. the @Jaguars. #forwardprogress https://t.co/nSAIuqI3XR
— Sam Rapoport (@samrap10) November 28, 2020
The move is just the latest adjustment the Browns have made as they navigate an unpredictable 2020 season. It is somewhat fitting the Brownson would step up for Petzing after she was singled out by head coach Kevin Stefanksi during the week (quote via cleveland.com):
“That is our job to adjust as coaches and to see who is available to us and put a gameplan together to go win. I would go back to I have some really, really good coaches working with me. On a day like this when you are trying to get the schedule and you are trying to add extra meetings, (Chief of Staff) Callie (Brownson) is putting everything together for us. She is the star of the day and able to put that together. That is where I am lucky to have really good coaches around me.”
Working with the tight ends on game day is another step up the ladder for Brownson, who is in her first year with the Browns after Stefanski hired her in January.
Brownson has a solid football background, having played for eight seasons with the D.C. Divas of the Women’s Football Alliance. She is also a two-time gold medalist with Team USA, bringing home medals at the International Federation of American Football Women’s World Championships in Finland in 2013 and Vancouver in 2017.
She began her coaching career while still playing the game, working for three seasons with the Mount Vernon High School team. From there, she went on to spend the 2017 season as a college/professional personnel scouting intern with the New York Jets, and turned a two-week internship at Dartmouth College into a full-time position as an offensive quality control coach in 2018.
She spent the 2019 season with the Buffalo Bills as a member of head coach Sean McDermott’s coaching staff.