Spotlight Speaker Shares Her Journey to Becoming the First Female NFL Official

When Sarah Thomas was a young girl growing up in Pascagoula, Mississippi, her father instilled in her the idea that she could achieve anything she wanted on her own. “Don’t depend on a man for anything,” he told her. That sense of independence, along with being accountable for her own choices, fueled her success as a basketball player in college and later on her path to becoming the first female official in the NFL.

Thomas shared her journey to her breakthrough success in a male-dominated industry during Tuesday’s Spotlight Speaker session at the ISSA Show North America Virtual Experience. Being a girl was never an excuse to not do something, she said.

“I learned, if you are constantly making excuses or feel sorry for yourself, then you are always looking in the rearview mirror and not at the opportunities in front of you,” Thomas told Virtual Experience attendees. “Look through your windshield and move forward. It’s so much bigger than your rearview mirror.”

Thomas’ interest in officiating was sparked when she attended a Gulf Coast Football Officials Association meeting with her two brothers, also officials, when she was 23-years-old. As an athlete, she had always been on the other side of the whistle and was curious. At this meeting she was the only woman in the room.

“I sat in that first meeting in 1996, thinking what in the world have I gotten myself into?” she said. “I had no clue about the game of football from an officiant standpoint.”

But she soon found a passion and started her journey as a high school football official where she worked for a decade while also becoming a mother of two sons.

“You got to do things in life because you love it—not to prove people wrong, not to do it for the recognition, but because you love it,” Thomas said. “I fell in love with something, and it allowed me to stay involved in organized sports. It wasn’t a shock to me [to be the first female official], it was more of a shock to the men and how they were going to handle me.”

Sarah Thomas was the Spotlight Speaker for Day 2 of the ISSA Show North America Virtual Experience.

Being told a woman would never be hired in the Mississippi junior college football league, Thomas found a spot in Conference USA. She set her sights even higher, and years of hard work paid off when she officiated her first NFL game September 13, 2015, between the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans. Now Thomas’ hat, whistle, and flag are on display at the NFL Hall of Fame and serve as a testament to her historic achievement.

Thomas also made post-season history by being named down judge for the Patriots/Chargers 2019 playoff game. She was also the first female official to ever work a major college football game, to officiate a bowl game, and to officiate in a Big Ten stadium.

Now a mother of three and in the middle of her sixth NFL season, Thomas credits her success to her passion for what she does and also to integrity—to being honest and never giving up—even when the odds are against you.

She now has her sights set on doing her best where she is today so she can be invited to be the first female to officiate a Super Bowl in the future.

“If my journey can impact anyone in a positive manner, no matter where you come from, or your race or gender, that means more to me than anything,” Thomas said.