This is extremely big news in the world of sports. America’s favorite sport is making a huge change to how they conduct their business. During the 2015 NFL season, Sarah Thomas will become the NFL’s first full time referee.
According to FoxSports,
The NFL is hiring Sarah Thomas as its first female official, according to a Baltimore Sun report.
Being the first woman to officiate at different levels is not new for Thomas.
She worked for Conference USA in 2007 and in 2009 became the first woman to officiate a bowl game.
She has been in the NFL’s Officiating Development program and worked a preseason game last season.
“I set out to do this and get involved in officiating not having any idea that there were not any females officiating football,” Thomas told NFL Network. “Being a former basketball player, you saw female officiating all the time. So, no, I don’t feel like a pioneer.”
Thomas was born in Pascagoula, Mississippi. She played basketball in college at the University of Mobile. After school, she played on a men’s team in a church league.
Thomas began her refereeing career in 1999 at the high-school level. Gerald Austin invited Thomas to attend an officials’ camp, where he was impressed by her performance and Conference USA hired Thomas in 2007. In 2011, she was the first female referee to work in a Big Ten stadium.
A woman did work a game in 2012, when Shannon Eastin served as a replacement ref when the NFL locked out its officials.
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