CHICAGO–The journey of the first female official in the National Football League has been a lot longer than 100 yards, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
Kicking off the joint annual meetings of the CUNA Operations and Member Experience Council and the CUNA Technology Council here, Sarah Thomas talked more about her own life and history than she did what it’s like to be a pioneer in professional football, saying it was the former that has made the latter possible.
“There is so much more to my journey than me arriving with the initials NFL behind my name,” Thomas said. “People always ask you what motivates you, Sarah. (Showing a picture of her three children). They don’t motivate me, they encourage me. If you don’t motivate yourself every morning, you need to check your motor. Get up and get moving.”
Thomas said she has arrived at four quotes that she said guide her and help her keep perspective:
- “Be yourself, because everyone else is already taken.”
- “Don’t let people drive you crazy, when you know it’s in walking distance.”
- “A successful person is someone who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others have thrown at him or her.” (David Brinkley)
- “Accept the fact that some days you are the pigeon and some days you are the statue.”
A Life in Athletics
Thomas has spent all her life active in athletics, beginning when she grew up in Mississippi. The daughter of educators, Thomas said she had a father who instilled in her she should never depend on men for anything. “And I think I took it to heart, because I can’t keep one,” she joked.
As a child Thomas played sports on boys teams before reaching a level where she was told she wasn’t allowed to play. She said she had seldom seen her father so angry as when she was told she couldn’t play, but it didn’t get her down.
“You can choose to look at something as either a roadblock or a speedbump. How big is your rear view mirror and how big is your windshield. Which one is larger?” she asked.
Thomas went on to play college basketball at Mississippi State and was playing church league basketball after graduating—before being kicked out after some men said they weren’t comfortable–when she accompanied her brother to a meeting of football officials.
‘What Have I Gotten Myself Into?’
Sarah Thomas speaking to CUNA Council Conference.
“As I sat there I saw these guys challenge each other on calls. They took it very seriously and I was intrigued. I had no idea what I had gotten myself into. I had no idea about the game of people, and a lot of people think I don’t know what I’ve gotten myself into,” said Thomas. “For 10 years I worked the high school associations in Mississippi. They really didn’t know what to do with me. I never knew there weren’t any women in football.”
Thomas would move on to the Middle Mississippi Athletic Association and for seven years she said the crew chief kept pushing her to apply to officiate junior college football. Ten years in and with two kids she said she was working what she thought would be her last high school game, not knowing an NFL scout in attendance.
“I get a phone call after the game from him and he said I think you have what it takes to go to the next level,” Thomas recalled. “My question was what separated me and he said, ‘I didn’t know you were a woman.’ It’s the way you carried yourself on and off the field during a very controversial situation and the way you talked to a heated coach. One thing I learned from that is someone is always watching what you do.”
Moving Up
Thomas moved on to officiate in Conference USA, initially listed as S.B. Thomas so the president of the Conference wouldn’t know she was a woman. Her first game was Jacksonville State at the University of Memphis. She worked two Conference USA games that season, and five the next plus five more on the replay crew. She was named to a full time officiating crew in her third season.
“One thing you need to know about football officials is we will work any kind of game we can get. I worked the United Football League and the Indoor League. I interviewed with the NFL in 2011,” she said. “There was a lot of buzz about Sarah Thomas being the first female referee.”
But then that life journey Thomas was talking about intervened again when she became pregnant. She said one person suggested not telling the league about the pregnancy and instead suggesting she was out due to a “high ankle sprain.”
“I said, ‘Well, I’m going to swell up around my belly,” she joked.
The Call Comes
In April of 2013, Thomas was plugged into the NFL Referee Development program and what was then the NFL’s European league. “That was for officials, as well. Chemistry in anything, family, work, etc., is crucial. They want to see how you interact off the field,” she said.
In 2014, Thomas worked the college Senior Bowl for Division I players.
In 2015, Thomas got the call she was waiting for. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the message she expected.
“They told me they aren’t going to hire me. I was waiting for the punch line,” related Thomas. “I asked what did I do or not do?”
Thomas said the person on the other end of the call, Dean Blandino, then the NFL’s vice president of officiating, responded by saying, ‘Stop, don’t start with the self-doubt.’ And I said I would not be where I am if I did not start with me.”
‘Screamed Like a Girl’
Sarah Thomas refereeing NFL game.
The next time Blandino called, it was the news she wanted to hear.
“He said, ‘I want to congratulate you on being one of nine new NFL officials.’ I was speechless. One thing I commended him for, he didn’t say the ‘first’ or the ‘only female official.’ He said ‘new official.’ I don’t want to be on an island by myself as the first female official. But I love having the title and I love what it means to other people, including my daughter.”
For the past three years Thomas has been a member of the same NFL officiating crew, and last season she worked a playoff game after grading out highly enough to do so. “I did scream like a girl,” laughed Thomas.
Thomas’ first game was the Kansas City Chiefs vs. the Houston Texans. Thomas’ hat, whistle and flag are now in the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
Lessons Learned
Throughout her journey, Thomas said the lessons she has learned include:
- “Do not go through your life trying to prove people wrong. That list will never end. You will exhaust yourself. Prove to yourself you belong.”
- “If you’re doing it for the recognition, don’t. Do it because you love it.”
- “The toes you kiss on the way up that ladder will be the backsides you will kiss on the way down.”
- “Success only becomes work in the dictionary. I have worked my tail off. There are so many sacrifices I have made, that my kids have made.”
- “Comparison is the thief of joy. If you are constantly comparing, you are robbing yourself. If you are in a leadership role, check yourself at the door. You are creating a miserable environment.
“Being the first isn’t the reason I did this, but if my story can impact anyone in a positive manner, that’s what matters to me,” Thomas said.