Description:
Sarah Thomas (born 1973) is an American football official. Currently an official for the National Football League (NFL), she is noted for being a pioneer in female officiating. Thomas was the first woman to officiate a major college football game, the first to officiate a bowl game, and the first to officiate in a Big Ten stadium. In 2015, the NFL announced they would hire Thomas as the first full-time female official in NFL history.
Officiating career
Early years
Thomas began her officiating career in 1996, when she attended a meeting of the Gulf Coast Football Officials Association. She worked her first varsity hig
Sarah Thomas (born 1973) is an American football official. Currently an official for the National Football League (NFL), she is noted for being a pioneer in female officiating. Thomas was the first woman to officiate a major college football game, the first to officiate a bowl game, and the first to officiate in a Big Ten stadium. In 2015, the NFL announced they would hire Thomas as the first full-time female official in NFL history.
Officiating career
Early years
Thomas began her officiating career in 1996, when she attended a meeting of the Gulf Coast Football Officials Association. She worked her first varsity high school game in 1999.[1][2]
Conference USA
In 2006, Gerry Austin, Conference USA's coordinator of officials and a former NFL official, invited her to an officials' camp. Austin was impressed with her skills and hired her for the Conference USA staff.[1] In 2007, Thomas became the first woman to officiate a major college football game, working a game between Memphis and Jacksonville State.[3] Before that game, Austin said, "She came highly recommended by two NFL scouts. She has a good presence and demeanor. I feel like she has the ability and courage to make a call, and the guts to not make one, too."[3]
Bowl-game breakthrough
During the 2009 season, Thomas was one of five female officials in major college football and the only one at the Football Bowl Subdivision level.[2] She was assigned to a crew and given a full schedule of 11 games.[2] At the end of the season, she was selected to work the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl between Marshall and Ohio, making her the first woman to officiate a bowl game.[3] Regarding her presence, Marshall running back and game MVP Martin Ward said "I noticed her before the game, but that was it. Once the game started, she was just doing the job that the line judge does in every game we play. It didn't matter that she was a woman at all."[4]
On November 12, 2011, Thomas became the first woman to officiate in a Big Ten stadium, working as a line judge when Northwestern hosted Rice.[5]
United Football League
Thomas has officiated United Football League games, and in 2010 worked the league championship game.
National Football League
In 2013, Thomas became one of 21 finalists in contention for a permanent NFL officiating position.[6]
Thomas has worked New Orleans Saints scrimmages,[7] and was part of the NFL officiating development program, spending three days at the Indianapolis Colts minicamp.
Her opportunity to officiate a regular season game could happen as early as 2014.[8]
If successful, Thomas would become the first permanent female NFL official (Shannon Eastin, hired as a temporary non-union official during the 2012 NFL referee lockout, was the first woman to officiate an NFL game).
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