(Now she wears a snapback hat with her ponytail pulled through). Though she understood he wanted her to fly under the radar, so she’d tuck her hair into a fitted hat. “I remember him telling me that I was going to have to put my hair up under the hat and then wear little or no makeup, and I told Gerald he was crossing the line with the makeup,” she said with a laugh. But Thomas, who now works in marketing at 360 Total Rehab in Mississippi, balked when Austin gave her some beauty advice. She got just that in 2007 when Austin assigned her to a Jacksonville State-Memphis game, making her the first woman to work a major college football game. She just needed some college experience,” said Austin, who has remained a mentor. She had what I call, CFS: common football sense. Of the 18 people at her position, I had her in the top three. But he also wanted to see Thomas on the field, so he got her into a camp in Reno, Nev. On Haynes’ recommendation, Austin hired Thomas after a 45-minute conversation. “He said, ‘I have an official I think you should take a look at,’ ” Austin said. But around the decade mark, she considered giving it up, according to the podcast.Īustin, who has officiated three Super Bowls, first heard the name Sarah Thomas from another former NFL official, Joe Haynes, who was working as a scout. She even continued throughout two pregnancies, working the clock, an off-field, but still accredited position. But Thomas, who was also a pharmaceutical rep, dug in her heels and started wearing zebra stripes in 1996, officiating her first varsity game in 1999.
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The man in charge asked if she was someone’s wife, then tried to steer her toward officiating women’s hoops. You’re going to get a few strange stares.’ I was like, ‘It’s alright. She has said her brother told her: “ ‘Sis, these are a bunch of old men set in their ways. Sarah Thomas talks to Patriots coach Bill Belichick during a game this season. At the time, her older brother was officiating high school football and convinced her to attend a meeting with him.
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But she said after three years she got the boot because she was female. Thomas, who has two brothers, played college hoops at the University of Mobile (Ala.), then joined a local men’s league. Her paternal uncle was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates and her aunt, Jill Upton, coached the 1973 USA World University Games basketball team, a squad that included legendary Tennessee coach Pat Summitt. I mean there’s been many valleys that I’ve gone through.” “Every one of us have a story, and yes, I’m sitting here talking about all the good stuff. “I say that all the time people think that Sarah Thomas just arrived on April 8 of 2015, but there’s so much more to my story, and that’s like with anyone,” she told “Bridge the Gap,” a healthcare focused podcast. In 2019, she officiated her first NFL playoff game. She entered the league in 2015, becoming the first full-time female official, and has continued to break gender barriers across the sport. It has been a relatively meteoric rise for Thomas, a Mississippi native and mother of two teen boys and a young daughter. You’ve had obstacles to overcome and you’ve earned it. “And the first thing I told her was, ‘Look, you’ve worked hard. “She was emotional when she was telling me,” Gerald Austin, a former NFL official and head of officiating for Conference USA, told The Post.
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Upon learning of her historic assignment, Thomas, 47, placed a phone call to the man who first hired her for the college ranks. When Sarah Thomas takes the field as the down judge, she will become the first female to officiate a Super Bowl. Tom Brady blown away by Buccaneers’ Super Bowl ringĪll eyes will be on Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes on Sunday, but it will be impossible to write Super Bowl 2021’s history without No. Girlfriend reflects on Bucs’ Super Bowl win in Rob Gronkowski tributeĪntonio Brown heads back to Florida home after wild Buccaneers exit
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