NFL official Sarah Thomas has spent her career breaking barriers, and her role in the Super Bowl LV is no different.
On Sunday, Thomas will become the first woman to officiate at a Super Bowl. She will be the game’s descent judge with referee Carl Cheffers, referee Fred Bryan, line judge Rusty Baynes, field judge James Coleman, side judge Eugene Hall, side judge Din Paganelli and review referee Mike Wimmer.
Thomas has worked full time in the NFL since being named the first permanent female officer in NFL history in 2015. Here are five things you should know about Sarah Thomas’s pioneering career.
- Thomas grew up as an avid athlete. She wrote softball five times during high school and attended the University of Mobile on a basketball scholarship. During his three high school seasons, Thomas totaled 779 points, 411 rebounds, 108 assists and 192 steals, the fifth highest number ever in school history, and was named Academic All-American.
- Thomas was surrounded by a family of football players. His two brothers played football while growing up. Thomas, who majored in communications, accompanied his older brother to an officers’ meeting after college, with an interest in continuing his connection with sports. She then started to run elementary school football games in Mississippi and later moved to high school.
- Thomas rose through the ranks as a college football officer. After being recommended by a former official and impressing with his official talent, Thomas was hired by Gerry Austin to join the Conference USA team in 2006. The following year, Thomas became the first woman to make an important football game official. university. In 2009, she became the first woman to officiate at a bowling game and was later the first to officiate at a Big Ten stadium in 2011.
- Thomas spent time as a pharmaceutical representative before becoming a full-time NFL officer in 2015. Thomas worked as a pharmaceutical sales representative, in addition to his arbitration responsibilities before being hired as the first permanent female NFL officer in April 2015. Mother of three, Thomas became the first woman to receive a field assignment for an NFL playoff game in 2019 before being named to the official Super Bowl LV refereeing team in 2021.
- The NFL coined the term “inferior judge” after hiring Thomas. Thomas began his career as a line judge in the NFL, but moved to a lower judge in 2017. The position used to be called “chief judge”, but was changed to a more inclusive name after Thomas’s move. The name change is something the league had discussed before, according to Albert Breer of MMQB, but the NFL wanted to recognize Thomas and encourage more women to seek arbitration in switching to a gender-neutral term.