Maia Chaka becomes first Black woman to referee an NFL game in Panthers-Jets matchup

NFL history was made at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte on Sunday — and it wasn’t by someone wearing a jersey.

Maia Chaka became the first Black woman to referee an NFL game on Sunday afternoon when she served as a line judge in the Carolina Panthers’ season opener with the New York Jets.

“I am honored to be selected as an NFL official,” Chaka said in an official statement earlier this offseason. “But this moment is bigger than a personal accomplishment. It is an accomplishment for all women, my community and my culture.”

Chaka, 39, entered Sunday with an impressive resume: She earned her bachelor’s in education in 2006 from historically Black university Norfolk State University before beginning her teaching and officiating careers, according to a release from the NFL. She then began officiating college football, including games in the Pac-12 and Conference USA.

In 2014, Chaka was selected for the NFL’s Officiating Development Program, which identifies top collegiate officiating talent to expose them to some of the same experiences as NFL officials, working to determine if they have the ability to succeed as an NFL official.

Chaka has become yet another trailblazer in a sport that at all levels is overwhelmingly male and often white. In 2020, Lori Locus and Maral Javadifar, who are women, were added to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers coaching staff, and the same year, Sarah Thomas became the first woman to officiate a Super Bowl.

This story was originally published September 12, 2021 at 3:01 PM with the headline "Maia Chaka becomes first Black woman to referee an NFL game in Panthers-Jets matchup."

Alex Zietlow

The Herald

Alex Zietlow writes about sports and the ways in which they intersect with life in York, Chester and Lancaster counties for The Herald, where he has been an editor and reporter since August 2019. Zietlow has won nine S.C. Press Association awards in his career, including First Place finishes in Feature Writing, Sports Enterprise Writing and Education Beat Reporting. He also received two Top-10 awards in the 2021 APSE writing contest and was nominated for the 2022 U.S. Basketball Writers Association’s Rising Star award for his coverage of the Winthrop men’s basketball team.