Sarah Thomas to make NFL history as first woman to officiate in the Super Bowl

Sarah Thomas will be a down judge at Super Bowl LV in Tampa Bay
Getty Images

Sarah Thomas will become the first woman to officiate in a Super Bowl, the NFL has announced. 

Thomas has been named as the down judge for the match on February 7 in a historic first for the sport four years after she became the league’s first full-time female official. 

Carl Cheffers, in what is his 21st season as an NFL official, has been given the role of refereeing his second Super Bowl having also performed the role back in 2017. 

In a statement, Troy Vincent, NFL executive vice president of football operations, said: “Sarah Thomas has made history again as the first female Super Bowl official.

"Her elite performance and commitment to excellence has earned her the right to officiate the Super Bowl. Congratulations to Sarah on this well-deserved honour.” 

The 47-year-old Thomas had previously become the first woman to officiate in an NFL playoff game.  

Next month’s Super Bowl is set to be played out between two of four sides remaining in the postseason race.

Tom Brady will be bidding to inspire the Tampa Bay Bucaneers to a home Super Bowl as they face the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship Game this weekend, while the Kansas City Chiefs will hope to keep their title defence on track against the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship deciders.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in