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NFL Makes History With First All-Black Officiating Crew Including 3 Women

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December 17, 2023

History was recently made!

During last week’s NFL game between the Las Vegas Raiders and the Los Angeles Chargers, history was made with the first all-Black on-field and replay officiating crew, which included three women. The officiating crew included Maia Chaka, who served as the line judge; Artenzia Young-Seigler, the replay official; and Desiree Abrams, the replay assistant. The crew called a combined ten penalties for 95 yards in the game.

The NFL posted about the memorable moment on social media with the hashtag #InspireChange.

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The NFL has recently improved its diversity and inclusion efforts. Now, the NFL has nine full-time Black general managers, five full-time Black team presidents, and four head coaches, including Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce, whose team had a 63-21 victory on Thursday.

However, this historic moment has been years in the making. The first-ever NFL game to be officiated by an all-Black crew was on November 23, 2020, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers played against the Los Angeles Rams. Sarah Thomas became the first female to work as an on-field official in 2006. And all of this happened nearly two decades after the NFL’s first Black referee, Johnny Grier, who was promoted from field judge in 1988.

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“We’re focused on working with the clubs to improve diversity up and down the ranks of the NFL in their organizations,” Jonathan Beane, the NFL’s senior vice president and chief diversity & inclusion officer, said during the media session. “It’s really the humans-to-human connection and building relationships that hopefully are long-standing.”

(Cover photo: Las Vegas Raiders and the Los Angeles Chargers Officiating Crew/Photo Courtesy of NFL)

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