NFL
No matter the score between the Los Angeles Chargers and Las Vegas Raiders on “Thursday Night Football,” the matchup will be historic. Referee Ronald Torbert spearheaded the first all-Black on-field and replay crew to officiate a game.
Also a first: the three women working the game on the same crew, with one on the field and two in the replay booth. Maia Chaka is the line judge, Artenzia Young-Seigler is the replay official and Desiree Abrams is the replay assistant.
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The NFL has upped its diversity and inclusion efforts over the years, and the “Thursday Night Football” game was another first after the league announced last week that a majority of club personnel — 51 percent — is made up of people of color and/or women for the first time in league history. There are also five full-time Black team presidents and nine full-time Black general managers.
History. 👏
Tonight, the first ever all-Black on-field and replay crew will officiate the game. It also will be the first time that three women will be on the same crew. #InspireChange pic.twitter.com/KBBwOaQDs0
— NFL (@NFL) December 15, 2023
The first all-Black crew to officiate an NFL game did so on Nov. 23, 2020, when the Los Angeles Rams played the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The seven-person crew was led by referee Jerome Boger and included Barry Anderson (umpire), Anthony Jeffries (side judge), Carl Johnson (line judge), Julian Mapp (down judge), Dale Shaw (field judge) and Greg Steed (back judge).
Boger became the third Black referee in the NFL in 2006, 18 years after Johnny Grier became the first.
Historically, Black people and women — and the intersection of those groups — have been underrepresented compared to their White male counterparts.
The NFL didn’t have a Black referee until the late Grier was promoted from field judge to referee in 1988. For context, that was 68 years after the inaugural NFL season in 1920. The NFL didn’t have a woman referee until Sarah Thomas became the first woman to work as an on-field official in 2019, which was 99 years after the inaugural NFL season. There’s surely more work to be done when it comes to the number of diverse NFL officials as a whole, but the NFL being able to have Black people and women so heavily represented on a single crew still represents significant growth. — Tashan Reed, Raiders staff writer
(Photo: Stephen R. Sylvanie / USA Today)
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