Photo by Patrick Ogilvie on Unsplash FACES NFL Hires First Black Female On-Field Referee Maia Chaka will join Sarah Thomas as the women to officiate an NFL game. by Brandon Berrios March 10, 2021 The NFL recently hired its first female referee and now they’ve made news again by hiring another, this time a woman named Maia Chaka. Chaka will join Sarah Thomas as the women to officiate an NFL game. Thomas was hired back in 2015 and worked on the crew that officiated Super Bowl LV this past February. The announcement that Chaka had been hired came on a segment of the “Today” show this past Friday. Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive VP of football operations said, “Maia’s years of hard work, dedication and perseverance — including as part of the NFL Officiating Development Program — have earned her a position as an NFL official.” “As we celebrate Women’s History Month, Maia is a trailblazer as the first Black female official and inspires us toward normalizing women on the football field,” he would continue on to say. Background Chaka has spent her career of more than 14 years teaching health and physical education at Renaissance Academy in Virginia. After her college career. Chaka wanted to become a basketball referee which seemed natural to her being that she played basketball in college at Finger Lakes Community College in New York. That same year she began teaching full-time and when she mentioned to a colleague that she wanted to referee basketball games, he suggested that she try football because the training sessions come before the basketball season. She was apprehensive about the idea at first because she knew very little about football, but she would later go from working high school games to Conference USA to the Pac-12 Conference. She did a short stint in the XFL, and since 2014, Chaka has participated in the NFL’s developmental program for officials. The NFL’s program for officials involves clinics, working team practices at OTAs and mini-camps, college all-star game assignments, preseason games, and evaluations from NFL supervisors. Impact The NFL has always been a boys’ club, but women are really making their mark on the sport. In February we saw the first woman official during a Super Bowl and now we are going to have a second one for the upcoming season. These historic moments are creating doors for women that haven’t always been there especially when it comes to men’s sports. Women are breaking down barriers into new arenas and smash through glass ceilings on the business side of things; I for one, am happy to see that women are getting into places they weren’t before because they can do just about everything a man can do and some even do it better. Post Views: 395 The following two tabs change content below.BioLatest Posts Brandon Berrios Latest posts by Brandon Berrios (see all) The Mockery of A Sport: Paul vs. Askren - April 19, 2021 Poirier McGregor Trilogy Is a Hot Ticket but is the Donation Beef a Show? - April 14, 2021 The Leverage Game: What’s Going on Between Jon Jones and UFC? - April 12, 2021 Master P’s Son, Hercy, Commits to Tennessee State - April 1, 2021 Related TopicsMaia ChakaNFlWomen in Sports Newsletter Subscription Can't Miss Posts! Women in Sports: NHL Network Host, Jackie Redmond by Nicholas Durst | posted on March 4, 2019 Passion For Sports Led Kelly Burke To Career As Broadcaster by Sunil Sunder Raj | posted on November 16, 2020 Women in Sports: Podcast Host, New York Riptide Sideline Reporter, Dani Wexelman by Luke Porco | posted on March 3, 2020 Women in Sports: Ariel Epstein, On-Air Host at SportsGrid (VIDEO) by Anthony Paradiso | posted on March 12, 2021 CBI to Utilize Experimental Men’s Basketball Rules Including Use of Quarters by Media Release | posted on March 9, 2017 More in FACES You Know I’m Right, Episode 113: New York Post Columnist Phil Mushnick (Audio/Video) On the 113th episode of You Know I’m Right, Nick Durst and Joe Calabrese are joined by... You Know I’m Right, Episode 112: New York Jets’ Insider Brian Costello (Audio/Video) On the 112th episode of You Know I’m Right, Nick Durst and Joe Calabrese are joined by... Exclusive Interview w/ Kyle J. Andrews, High School Sports Reporter from The Baltimore Sun (VIDEO) The following two tabs change content below.BioLatest Posts Sunil Sunder Raj Since July of... You Know I’m Right, Episode 108: WFAN’s Sweeny Murti (Audio/Video) On the 108th episode of You Know I’m Right, Nick Durst and Joe Calabrese are joined by... You Know I’m Right, Episode 92: Fox’s Tina Cervasio (Audio/Video) You Know I’m Right, Episode 93: Jenny Dell of CBS Sports