Brian Thomas Wiki – Brian Thomas Biography
Brian Thomas is the husband of Sarah Thomas. She is an American football official, currently for the National Football League (NFL), who wears uniform number 53. Thomas was the first woman to officiate a major college football game, the first to officiate a bowl game, and the first to officiate in a Big Ten stadium. On April 8, 2015, Thomas was hired as the first full-time female official in NFL history, and for the 2020 NFL season, she is on the officiating crew headed by referee Shawn Hochuli.
Thomas began her officiating career in 1996, when she attended a meeting of the Gulf Coast Football Officials Association. She worked her first varsity high school game in 1999.
In 2006, Gerry Austin, Conference USA’s coordinator of officials who also refereed Super Bowls XXXI and XXXV, invited her to an officials’ camp, due to Thomas proving her dedication and skills in the advancement of the industry. Austin was impressed with her skills and hired her for the Conference USA staff.
In 2007, Thomas became the first woman to officiate a major college football game, working a game between Memphis and Jacksonville State. Before that game, Austin said, “She came highly recommended by two NFL scouts. She has a good presence and demeanor. I feel like she has the ability and courage to make a call, and the guts to not make one, too.”
During the 2009 season, Thomas was one of five female officials in major college football and the only one at the Football Bowl Subdivision level. She was assigned to a crew and given a full schedule of 11 games. At the end of the season, she was selected to work the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl between Marshall and Ohio, making her the first woman to officiate a bowl game.
Regarding her presence, Marshall running back and game MVP Martin Ward said “I noticed her before the game, but that was it. Once the game started, she was just doing the job that the line judge does in every game we play. It didn’t matter that she was a woman at all.”
Brian Thomas Age
Brian Thomas’s age is unknown.
Brian Thomas & Sarah Thomas
Thomas resides in Brandon, Mississippi and is married with three children.
Sarah Thomas to become first woman to officiate at Super Bowl
Sarah Thomas will cap her sixth NFL season by becoming the first female to officiate the Super Bowl in the league’s history.
Thomas, a down judge, is part of the officiating crew announced Tuesday by the NFL.
“Sarah Thomas has made history again as the first female Super Bowl official,” said Troy Vincent Sr, the NFL’s executive vice resident of football operations. “Her elite performance and commitment to excellence has earned her the right to officiate the Super Bowl. Congratulations to Sarah on this well-deserved honor.”
This will be the first Super Bowl for Coleman as well as Thomas and second for Cheffers, Bryan, Baynes, Hall and Paganelli.
“Their body of work over the course of a 17-game season has earned them the honor of officiating the biggest game on the world’s biggest stage,” Vincent said. “They are the best of the best.”
“I got involved in officiating football because I was intrigued when these guys took it seriously,” she told ABC’s Good Morning America in 2013. “But then I was more challenged at, ‘Hey, I really don’t know the game of football,’ and, being a competitor, I really wanted to see, ‘Hey, what’s in store with this?’”