The National Football League has named a Black woman to an officiating crew for the first time in the 100-year history of the game.
Maia Chaka got the exciting news Monday over a phone call that she initially thought was a prank.
But the voice on the other end was Wayne Mackie, NFL vice president of officiating and development, who revealed she had the job.
Mackie, who was an NFL referee for 10 seasons, told his new hire that “you have a lot of work ahead of you,” starting with an upcoming meeting, reports said.
“He goes, ‘Welcome to the National Football League,’ and I just went nuts,” Chaka said of her mentor during an official announcement Friday on the “TODAY” show. “I asked him, ‘Hey, are you punking me, you’ve gotta be kidding me,’ because I’ve been at it for so long, I just never thought the day would come. I just enjoyed working.”
Second female official
Chaka has become only the second woman to join the NFL as an official, but she will be the first Black woman to administer the rules on Sundays this fall.
“It didn’t really hit me until just now,” Chaka told TODAY. “When I saw the introduction, I’m like, ‘This is really real,’ because this is just something that we’re just always taught to work hard for. Sometimes we just don’t take time to stop and smell our own roses.”
Chaka follows in the footsteps of Sarah Thomas, who made history in 2015 when she became the first female referee in the NFL and who also shattered another gender barrier by officiating during last month’s Super Bowl.
“It’s just an honor to join the National Football League,” Chaka said, according to NBC News. “Just because I’ve been at it for so long and I just never thought the day would come.”
Rising to the top
Chaka’s rise to the pinnacle of her officiating career was a long and winding road.
Chaka started officiating high school games and moved on to Conference USA and Pac-12 college games. She also worked XFL games before the season was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
And during the past decade she has continued to work as a physical education teacher at Renaissance Academy in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where she works with at-risk youth, reports said.
She was accepted into the NFL Officiating Development Program in 2014 along with 20 other referees, including Thomas. The program gave both women an opportunity to officiate NFL preseason games.
“You need to have a lot of patience,” she told “TODAY.” “And then after having patience, you have to be able to listen, and then you need to have the confidence on the field to make the call. You also need to make sure that you are very decisive in that whatever decision you make, you stand by it,” she said, adding “Work hard, and always, always, always follow your dreams.”
History of Black officials
The first Black man to officiate games in the NFL was Burl Toler, who served as a field judge and head linesman for 25 seasons from 1965 to 1989.
The first Black man to become referee, considered the leading official who announces penalties to the crowd, was Johnny Grier, who worked in the NFL for 23 seasons from 1981 to 2004 and became the first Black referee in 1988.
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