April 03, 2015
Stephen Brashear/AP
The NFL has reportedly hired Sarah Thomas, above, as its first full-time official.
According to Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun, the NFL has hired the first full-time female official in the history of the league.
Her name is Sarah Thomas, and she has spent nearly a decade officiating college games for Conference USA, becoming the first woman to work a bowl game, in addition to working NFL camps and even a preseason game.
Hearing the NFL has hired its first female official, Sarah Thomas, a ground-breaking move. Mississippi native was a finalist previously
— Aaron Wilson (@RavensInsider) April 3, 2015
Last year, Thomas spoke with NFL Network about working a bowl game and what being hired by the NFL would mean.
"I set out to do this and get involved in officiating not having any idea that there were not any females officiating football," she 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, a Mississippi native who was previously a finalist for a job with the NFL, won't be the first woman to officiate an NFL game, however, as Shannon Eastin holds that honor. She worked games as a replacement referee during the 2012 season when the league locked out its officials. What makes today's news special is that Thomas, unlike Eastin, will be a full-time official.
And, of course, it didn't take long for someone in the media to say that thing you can't say in these situations. Kevin Kiley, who hosts a morning sports show in Cleveland, said on Friday that this "was the wrong place to put a woman."
Seriously? Let's hear how you try to argue your way out of that one:
The objection I have to this is why would you put a woman in that position? To be abused. Now I’m not talking about physical abuse obviously, but I’m talking about—we have comments on Twitter here about when an offensive lineman or somebody unloads profanity on this woman—I don’t want women I care about in that position. I don’t understand it. I don’t understand why you’d put a woman in that position, where she’s going to be criticized and under a microscope, and have to deal with things that no woman should have to deal with.
[...]
You’re in a strictly man’s world. In a thing that calls for a lot of “man traits,” if you will, not that they’re better or worse than female traits, it’s just not the right place. It’s the wrong place to put a woman. It’s unfair to the woman. [via Deadspin.com]
Good try, radio guy.
With the hire, the NFL joins the NBA as the only other major professional American sports league that employs female on-court or on-field officials.
The NBA has had three full-time female officials, including two* current referees, Violet Palmer and Lauern Holtkamp. And things haven't always gone smoothly.
Earlier this season, Chris Paul was very critical of Holtkamp, in only her first season as an NBA ref, after a technical foul call in a loss to the Cavs. He was fined $25,000 and insisted that his comments had nothing to do with gender and it was all about "a bad call."
Needless to say, every call Thomas makes this season will be scrutinized. They should be, but for the right reasons -- because she's a rookie, not because she's a woman.
And only if you plan to do the same every time the league hires a new official.
