NFL set to hire its first female game official

[Prime Time]

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...l-set-to-hire-its-first-female-game-official/

Report: NFL set to hire its first female game official
Posted by Darin Gantt on April 3, 2015

AP

Fridays of holiday weekends are generally for dropping bad news, but the NFL may be about to announce a groundbreaking one.

According to Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun, the NFL has apparently hired its first female official, Sarah Thomas.

Thomas has been in the officiating pipeline for several years, and has been working at the college level while learning the NFL game.

She has worked camps and preseason games in the past, and technically wouldn’t be the first female on an NFL field, since Shannon Eastin worked a game during the replacement-ref era.

The league has had significant turnover in its officiating ranks in recent years, as they’ve tried to improve the part of the game which is practically built on human error.

But while new officials are a welcome addition, the addition of Thomas marks a milestone for a league too long bound by the old ways.

 

[fearsomefour]

She is the first NFL official....followed 4 sentences later with, she is not the first female official to work an NFL game.
Whatever. Couldn't be any worse than the men.

 

[den-the-coach]

She has to better than Jerome Boger so I welcome her with open arms!

 

[shaunpinney]

Great news, now can we please make sure that the officiating is:

1. Consistent, every game, every week
2. Of the highest standard, every game, every week
3. That officials are moderated better and are held accountable for poor game-time decisions

And that goes for male and female officials...

 

[Alan]

fearsomefour nailing it:
Couldn't be any worse than the men.

 

[snackdaddy]

Doesn't matter if bad calls are made by men or women. I guess she couldn't do any worse than last year's refs. They were terrible.

 

[Selassie I]

I hope they replace every single one of the clowns that have been fucking the integrity of the game for the last several years. Most of them think that they are the judge, jury, and executioner when it comes to interpreting the rule book... amazingly, none of them interpret the rules the same.

FIRE THEM ALL!!!

Hire one person who interprets the rules and insures that the zebras enforce them correctly. If they can't do it properly,,, fire their ass and replace them. Rinse and repeat until you have the shit straightened out.

Anything is better than the current Clown Show.

Thank you.

 

[CGI_Ram]

Put her in a bikini or skirt and I'm cool with it.

 

[CGI_Ram]

I hope they replace every single one of the clowns that have been freaking the integrity of the game for the last several years. Most of them think that they are the judge, jury, and executioner when it comes to interpreting the rule book... amazingly, none of them interpret the rules the same.

FIRE THEM ALL!!!

Hire one person who interprets the rules and insures that the zebras enforce them correctly. If they can't do it properly,,, fire their ass and replace them. Rinse and repeat until you have the crap straightened out.

Anything is better than the current Clown Show.

Thank you.

:eek:

 

[lockdnram21]

I don't like it. I'm sorry but how can a girl ref something she doesn't play. Imo they should stick to being reporterd

 

[LesBaker]

She has to better than Jerome Boger so I welcome her with open arms!

@den-the-coach you are reading my mind my friend. Give her Jerome jersey and lets move on!!!

 

[Memento]

I don't like it. I'm sorry but how can a girl ref something she doesn't play. Imo they should stick to being reporterd

Quite a few of the guys haven't really played either. All you need is a proper interpretation of the rules and the ability to enforce them consistently. If they can do that, it doesn't matter who they are.

 

[Prime Time]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Thomas_(American_football_official)

Sarah Thomas (American football official)

Sarah Thomas (born 1973) is an American football official. Currently an official for the National Football League, 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 female official.

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.

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. In 2007, Thomas became the first woman to officiate a major college football game, working a game between Memphis and Jacksonville State. 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."

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. She was assigned to a crew and given a full schedule of 11 games. 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. 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."

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.

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.

Thomas has worked New Orleans Saints scrimmages, 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.

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).

Personal life
Thomas was born in 1973 in Pascagoula, Mississippi. She attended Pascagoula High School, where she lettered five times in softball. She attended the University of Mobile on a basketball scholarship and was an academic all-American.

Thomas resides in Brandon, Mississippi and is married with three children. She works as a pharmaceutical sales representative.

 

[NJRamsFan]

I don't like it. I'm sorry but how can a girl ref something she doesn't play. Imo they should stick to being reporterd

You don't know the backstory of the male refs in the nfl. What's to say they played football? Yet you automatically assume (because she's female) she knows less about football than her male counterparts? I'm sorry bro I usually respect you as a poster but I'm having a hard time interpreting this as anything other than sexism.

 

[ztoben]

I don't like it. I'm sorry but how can a girl ref something she doesn't play. Imo they should stick to being reporterd

What an idiotic thing to say. Pathetic.

 

[Legatron4]

I think what @lockdnram21 is trying to say is women generally do not have the same type of passion about the game as men. How will she handled being booed? Will there be sexual harassment throughout the season by the fans or even the male refs? Most women I talk to know next to nothing about football. My sister doesn't even know what a first down is.

The refs have been god awful the last couple years and any type of change is welcomed, but I think any normal person would question whether or not she knows the actual game as well.

 

[-X-]

The refs have been god awful the last couple years and any type of change is welcomed, but I think any normal person would question whether or not she knows the actual game as well.

Probably only a handful of the people on this board have played the game, and we're all fucking geniuses.

/story.

 

[Athos]

I think what @lockdnram21 is trying to say is women generally do not have the same type of passion about the game as men. How will she handled being booed? Will there be sexual harassment throughout the season by the fans or even the male refs? Most women I talk to know next to nothing about football. My sister doesn't even know what a first down is.

There are females out there that trump the shit out of "established" "experts" on ESPN and girls out there who trump the FB knowledge of everyone on this forum.

I don't like it. I'm sorry but how can a girl ref something she doesn't play. Imo they should stick to being reporterd

Wow. That's some sexist BS right there. alm:

The male officials are either dirty (highly likely) or more grossly incompetent than we're led to believe. I won't mind seeing a fresh face who hopefully isn't in someone's pocket yet (cough, Kraft, cough).

A new perspective would be nice being the fuckers being trotted out there right now suck monkey balls quite a bit.

 

[FrantikRam]

A lot of men I talk to don't know much about football either....gender is meaningless.

Being less passionate can be a good thing...shouldn't we want there to be non NFL fans as refs??

Question: if some of these refs grew up as NFL fans (which is likely, right?), how could they put aside their love or hate for a certain team? Couldn't that be an explanation for some of the inexplicable calls over the years?

 

[Prime Time]

What an idiotic thing to say. Pathetic.

Not necessary to get personal. Please stop.