The NFL has its first full-time female game official . Sarah Thomas , who has worked exhibition games , will be a line judge for the 2015 season , the league announced on Wednesday . The 41-year-old was in the league 's officiating development program in 2013-14 and worked some team minicamps last year . She 's already broken ground in the officiating field as the first woman to work college games in 2007 . She was the first female official on the FBS level and the first to officiate a bowl game , the 2009 Little Caesars Pizza Bowl in Detroit . Sarah Thomas is the NFL 's first full-time female referee and will be a line judge during the upcoming season . Thomas poses during the pre-season game between the Seahawks and the Chargers last year . ' I am a female , but I do n't look at myself as just a female , ' Thomas said last June while working a Cleveland Browns minicamp . ' I look at myself as an official . ' Shannon Eastin worked regular-season NFL games in 2012 as a replacement official , making her the first female to do so in any capacity . She also was a line judge . Thomas , a former college basketball player , was inspired to become an official in the 1990s when she attended a meeting with her brother , Lea . In 1996 , Thomas became the first female to officiate in a Division 1-A high school football game in Mississippi . Just under a decade later , she began officiating college games when she was hired by Conference USA , working as a line judge and head linesman . She also has worked the Senior Bowl , the Fight Hunger Bowl , the Medal of Honor Bowl , and the Conference USA Championship game in 2010 and 2014 . Thomas officiated two seasons in the United Football League , which is now out of business . Off the field , she 's a pharmaceutical representative . She said last June her two sons and one daughter see nothing extraordinary about her football job . 'They just know mom officiates and it 's nothing foreign to them or pioneering or anything , ' she said . ' I do this . '
Thomas will be a line judge for the 2015 season . The 41-year-old was in the league 's officiating development program in the 1990s . She was the first female official on the FBS level and the first to officiate a bowl game . Thomas , a former college basketball player , was inspired to become an official in 2013-14 when she attended a meeting with her brother .