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Report: 49ers expected to hire 2nd female coach in NFL history

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

The San Francisco 49ers are expected to make Katie Sowers the second full-time female coach in NFL history, Cam Inman of The Mercury News reports.

Sowers finished a coaching internship with the 49ers on Friday and is expected to stay on as a full-time staff member, though the details about her new position have not been finalized. Sowers, 31, shared news of her position on her personal Facebook page.

"It's groundbreaking and all that stuff, but the more normalized it is, the better it is," Sowers said last week about her intern role with the team. "As a female, the more someone can ask me what I do and I say 'I coach football,' the less shock on their faces will mean the better direction we're moving."

Sowers also worked as a coaching intern for 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan in the 2016 preseason with the Atlanta Falcons, where Shanahan was offensive coordinator.

Though she is the second female to be hired as full-time coach, Sowers will likely be the only active woman on a coaching staff this season. The Buffalo Bills hired Kathryn Smith as a quality-control coach last season, but she was not retained as part of Sean McDermott's new coaching staff.

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