National Football League

Sarah Thomas, NFL's first female official, gets her crew assignment

Published Jun. 5, 2015 11:17 a.m. ET

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James Parziale

Sarah Thomas, who will be the NFL's first full-time female game official, has been assigned to Pete Morelli's crew.

Morelli has been an official since 1997 and was promoted to referee in 2003.

In all, the NFL added one new referee and 10 first-year NFL officials to the group of 122, the league announced Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Thomas worked for Conference USA in 2007 and in 2009 became the first woman to officiate a bowl game.

She has been in the NFL's Officiating Development program and worked a preseason game last season.

Thomas was born in Pascagoula, Mississippi. She played basketball in college at the University of Mobile. After school, she played on a men's team in a church league.

Thomas began her refereeing career in 1999 at the high-school level. Gerald Austin invited Thomas to attend an officials' camp, where he was impressed by her performance and Conference USA hired Thomas in 2007. In 2011, she was the first female referee to work in a Big Ten stadium.

A woman did work a game in 2012, when Shannon Eastin served as a replacement ref when the NFL locked out its officials.

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