Referee Sarah Thomas Will Make Super Bowl History — But She’s Part of a Trend

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NFL official Sarah Thomas is set to become the first woman to officiate in a Super Bowl. «When you start having more and more and more females, no one’s doing it for the recognition. They are doing it because they love it.

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Referees Natalie Sago #9 and Jenna Schroeder #84 during the game between the Charlotte Hornets and Orlando Magic on January 25, 2021 in Orlando. It was the first time two women officiated an NBA game.

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Sarah Thomas is no stranger to pressure situations. She’s refereed in several playoff games and is looking forward to working her first Super Bowl on Sunday.

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Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Sarah Thomas is no stranger to pressure situations. She’s refereed in several playoff games and is looking forward to working her first Super Bowl on Sunday.

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

And then of course, Sunday. Sarah Thomas will be part of a seven-person on-field team officiating the Super Bowl. Thomas started her NFL career as a Line Judge, but on the back of her jersey now, «DJ stands for Down Judge. It’s a different position and a relatively new title with an interesting gender-based history of its own.

Several years ago, Al Riveron, who was the NFL’s senior director of officiating and a former NFL referee, noticed a woman…not Sarah Thomas…in the league’s officiating development program. On her jersey, the letters «HL were for the long-standing position of Head Linesman. As in Head Linesman.

«I just don’t think it’s right that we call anybody out by gender, Riveron said in a 2017 interview with SB Nation. «Especially in this day and age when we welcome everyone into football.

So he started a process that ended with a position name change to the gender-neutral Down Judge.

And Sarah Thomas is about to be the most talked about Down Judge in Super Bowl history. She will be on a global stage, understanding she’s a first. But increasingly, not alone.

«When you start having more and more and more females, Thomas said in a recent NFL interview, «no one’s doing it for the recognition. They are doing it because they love it.

Thomas says it wasn’t necessarily a goal to work a Super Bowl. The goal was to be number one at her position.

Another glass ceiling broken. Another door opened.

And at the root of it, as with all the female officials finding their footing in male-dominated sports, is an intense desire to simply call a great game.