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Female Football Official in the Super Bowl


Bobref

Question

Carl Cheffers is our referee for the Super Bowl. But the big news is Sarah Thomas becomes the first female official assigned to a Super Bowl. 

With the current shortage of football officials in Indiana, there are real opportunities for younger officials — including women officials, to move up fast. As you can see by the article, the sky’s the limit. If you know a young woman who loves football, let her know these opportunities exist. 

http://www.footballzebras.com/2021/01/carl-cheffers-is-the-referee-for-super-bowl-lv-sarah-thomas-becomes-the-first-woman-to-officiate-a-super-bowl/

Carl Cheffers is the referee for Super Bowl LV. Sarah Thomas becomes the first woman to officiate a Super Bowl

ASSIGNMENTS

 

SUPER BOWL LV

  by Cameron Filipe - January 19, 20216

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this post that misidentified some members of the crew has been changed.

Football Zebras has confirmed that Carl Cheffers will be the referee for Super Bowl LV in Tampa.

Cheffers, 60, is in his 21st season and 13th as referee. This is Cheffers’ 15th postseason assignment, including 5 Wild Card Playoffs, 6 Divisional Playoffs, 2 Conference Championships. He previously officiated Super Bowl LI in the 2016 season. Cheffers was the referee for the Ravens-Bills Divisional Playoff last Saturday.

Cheffers is a sales manager from Whittier, Calif., who joined the NFL in 2000 after working five years in the Pac-10 Conference, now the Pac-12.

Also of note, down judge Sarah Thomas, hired in 2015 as the first woman official on the NFL’s full-time roster, will now make history again as the first woman to officiate a Super Bowl.

A referee must have at least 5 years of seniority, worked 3 years at the referee position, and worked a playoff game as a referee in a previous postseason. The other members of the Super Bowl crew have traditionally had a Conference Championship game on their résumé (or received on-field assignments in 3 of the last 5 postseasons) in addition to being at least a 5-year veteran. This year, that criteria appears to have been relaxed.

Entering this postseason, Thomas has worked two other postseason games; she earned the third this year, but that ordinarily means her Super Bowl eligibility would begin next year. Sources told Football Zebras in 2016 that she was slated to get a wild card assignment that year, but was sidelined with a broken wrist at the end of the regular season. Field judge James Coleman also has not had the requisite recent experience for a Super Bowl assignment, having a divisional assignment in 2018 and 2014, although he was injured in the 2015 season. He has picked up at least an alternate assignment and a Pro Bowl in those seasons he has not worked on the field, but that has not been a consideration previously. All other members of the crew 

As such, Thomas and Coleman are the two officials on the Super Bowl crew that will be working the Super Bowl for the first time in their careers. The remaining members of the crew will be working their second Super Bowl: Cheffers, umpire Fred Bryan, line judge Rusty Baynes, side judge Eugene Hall, and back judge Dino Paganelli.

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26 minutes ago, Bobref said:

Carl Cheffers is our referee for the Super Bowl. But the big news is Sarah Thomas becomes the first female official assigned to a Super Bowl. 

With the current shortage of football officials in Indiana, there are real opportunities for younger officials — including women officials, to move up fast. As you can see by the article, the sky’s the limit. If you know a young woman who loves football, let her know these opportunities exist. 

http://www.footballzebras.com/2021/01/carl-cheffers-is-the-referee-for-super-bowl-lv-sarah-thomas-becomes-the-first-woman-to-officiate-a-super-bowl/

Carl Cheffers is the referee for Super Bowl LV. Sarah Thomas becomes the first woman to officiate a Super Bowl

ASSIGNMENTS

 

SUPER BOWL LV

  by Cameron Filipe - January 19, 20216

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this post that misidentified some members of the crew has been changed.

Football Zebras has confirmed that Carl Cheffers will be the referee for Super Bowl LV in Tampa.

Cheffers, 60, is in his 21st season and 13th as referee. This is Cheffers’ 15th postseason assignment, including 5 Wild Card Playoffs, 6 Divisional Playoffs, 2 Conference Championships. He previously officiated Super Bowl LI in the 2016 season. Cheffers was the referee for the Ravens-Bills Divisional Playoff last Saturday.

Cheffers is a sales manager from Whittier, Calif., who joined the NFL in 2000 after working five years in the Pac-10 Conference, now the Pac-12.

Also of note, down judge Sarah Thomas, hired in 2015 as the first woman official on the NFL’s full-time roster, will now make history again as the first woman to officiate a Super Bowl.

A referee must have at least 5 years of seniority, worked 3 years at the referee position, and worked a playoff game as a referee in a previous postseason. The other members of the Super Bowl crew have traditionally had a Conference Championship game on their résumé (or received on-field assignments in 3 of the last 5 postseasons) in addition to being at least a 5-year veteran. This year, that criteria appears to have been relaxed.

Entering this postseason, Thomas has worked two other postseason games; she earned the third this year, but that ordinarily means her Super Bowl eligibility would begin next year. Sources told Football Zebras in 2016 that she was slated to get a wild card assignment that year, but was sidelined with a broken wrist at the end of the regular season. Field judge James Coleman also has not had the requisite recent experience for a Super Bowl assignment, having a divisional assignment in 2018 and 2014, although he was injured in the 2015 season. He has picked up at least an alternate assignment and a Pro Bowl in those seasons he has not worked on the field, but that has not been a consideration previously. All other members of the crew 

As such, Thomas and Coleman are the two officials on the Super Bowl crew that will be working the Super Bowl for the first time in their careers. The remaining members of the crew will be working their second Super Bowl: Cheffers, umpire Fred Bryan, line judge Rusty Baynes, side judge Eugene Hall, and back judge Dino Paganelli.

Feel free to post on the main forum as well....especially about the opportunities for women who may be interested in pursuing this. 

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Sarah has risen quickly in NFL terms to the Super Bowl in only 6 seasons.  One of the other officials is only in his 7th season so it's not that unique. Most have more experience because it often takes that long to get to the top 2 or 3 spots in ranking to earn the Super Bowl spot. There are 17 crews so 17 people at each position. There are many NFL officials who never get the Super Bowl call just from a numbers perspective. #1 probably isn't rated that much higher than #6 so it's entirely possible she was #4 or #5 but not significantly different than #1. I would assume she's very possibly #1 though. She had worked several years at lower levels before reaching the NFL. She started officiating in 1999 so this is her 22nd year as an official. She went from HS to Conference USA in only her 10th season which is fairly quick. I'm not sure if she worked small college before that, but it's very likely. She spent 6 years in FBS which is not uncommon before being hired by the NFL. That overall progression isn't significantly faster than others. Most NFL officials probably have 15-20 years of experience before making that level. She's just on the bottom end of that group.

Another group that is advancing even faster than she did is former NFL players. That's a great pool of people to pull from because they know what the NFL is about and usually still in good shape and athletic. One example is Terry Killens former Penn State and NFL LB. Terry started officiating in 2013 and was hired by the NFL in 2019. That is crazy fast. I met him at a college clinic probably in 2014 or 2015. Great guy and very humble about becoming an official. By all accounts he's doing a good job even with the limited experience. But most officials feel the risk to move someone that quickly is too high. Like many things experience and muscle memory are critical to being prepared for anything and the more you work the more likely you are to see more things.

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19 hours ago, JustRules said:

Sarah has risen quickly in NFL terms to the Super Bowl in only 6 seasons.  One of the other officials is only in his 7th season so it's not that unique. Most have more experience because it often takes that long to get to the top 2 or 3 spots in ranking to earn the Super Bowl spot. There are 17 crews so 17 people at each position. There are many NFL officials who never get the Super Bowl call just from a numbers perspective. #1 probably isn't rated that much higher than #6 so it's entirely possible she was #4 or #5 but not significantly different than #1. I would assume she's very possibly #1 though. She had worked several years at lower levels before reaching the NFL. She started officiating in 1999 so this is her 22nd year as an official. She went from HS to Conference USA in only her 10th season which is fairly quick. I'm not sure if she worked small college before that, but it's very likely. She spent 6 years in FBS which is not uncommon before being hired by the NFL. That overall progression isn't significantly faster than others. Most NFL officials probably have 15-20 years of experience before making that level. She's just on the bottom end of that group.

Another group that is advancing even faster than she did is former NFL players. That's a great pool of people to pull from because they know what the NFL is about and usually still in good shape and athletic. One example is Terry Killens former Penn State and NFL LB. Terry started officiating in 2013 and was hired by the NFL in 2019. That is crazy fast. I met him at a college clinic probably in 2014 or 2015. Great guy and very humble about becoming an official. By all accounts he's doing a good job even with the limited experience. But most officials feel the risk to move someone that quickly is too high. Like many things experience and muscle memory are critical to being prepared for anything and the more you work the more likely you are to see more things.

Not surprised in the least.

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