Alright, let’s talk about Sarah Thomas. I remember first really noticing her, I think it was during that Super Bowl, you know? LV, was it? Bucs and Chiefs. I was watching the game, mostly focused on the plays, maybe half-listening to the commentary.
Then someone, maybe it was one of the announcers, or maybe my buddy who was watching with me pointed it out. “Hey, look, that ref, that’s the first woman officiating the Super Bowl.” My first thought, honestly? It was kinda like, “Oh, okay, cool.” Didn’t hit me like a ton of bricks right away.
But then, you sort of process it a bit more while the game’s going on. You see her making calls, running down the field. Doing the job. And it starts to sink in. Why haven’t we seen this before? It’s 2021, or whenever that was. Seems kinda late, right?
Thinking Back
It got me thinking about other stuff, totally unrelated, like stuff from years ago. I used to help coach my kid’s soccer team, just little league stuff. Mostly dads doing the coaching, dads doing the reffing on weekends. We had a couple of moms help out, but they mostly handled snacks and paperwork. No one really questioned it, it just… was.
Seeing Sarah Thomas out there, on the biggest stage for American football, it made me reflect on those little league days. Why didn’t we encourage more moms to ref or coach? Was it just that none wanted to? Or did we, kinda without thinking, just fall into those old roles?
- You see someone break a barrier.
- You start questioning things you took for granted.
- It wasn’t some big “aha!” moment, more like a slow burn thought process.
Later on, I actually looked her up. Found out she’d been working her way up for years. College games, bowl games, then the NFL. That takes serious dedication. It’s not just about being the first woman; it’s about being damn good at your job to even get considered for that level. You gotta know the rules inside out, be fit, make split-second decisions with millions watching.
It’s just work, isn’t it? At the end of the day. She was just doing her job. But seeing her do it made a difference, at least in how I thought about things. Made me realize sometimes you don’t even notice the walls until you see someone climb over them.
So yeah, that was my little journey thinking about Sarah Thomas. Started watching a football game, ended up questioning old habits and assumptions. Funny how things work out sometimes.
