Callie Brownson knew football was her calling when she felt the devastation of an unexpected defeat.

Brownson, whose father Bruce graduated from the University of Miami, was an adolescent in Northern Virginia when the Hurricanes lost the 2003 Fiesta Bowl to Ohio State in dramatic, stunning fashion. Her favorite team's dream season had ended in demoralizing fashion, and Brownson was crushed.

"I was devastated for weeks," Brownson said. "I didn't want to go to school."

Years later, no matter the obstacles that stood in her way, Brownson has carved out a career in the sport she loves, first as a player and now as a coach. After serving as a full-time coaching intern with the Buffalo Bills last season, Brownson has been named the Chief of Staff for Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski.

"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. "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."

Brownson's role is similar to the one Stefanski had under Brad Childress in 2006, when he took his first full-time NFL job as assistant to the head coach with the Minnesota Vikings. It was an invaluable experience that jump-started Stefanski's career, and it was imperative he did the same for someone else.

"It's very involved in every aspect of a football operation," Stefanski said. "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.

"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 was involved in a number of different areas with the Bills throughout their run to the playoffs. In a surreal twist of irony, Brownson was able to coach alongside Ken Dorsey, Buffalo's quarterbacks coach who was the quarterback of the Miami team Brownson watched fall to the Buckeyes on that fateful night in 2003. He was one of many coaches who helped Brownson leave Buffalo "a different person" than when she began the internship.