When she was a little girl Shannon Eastin wanted to play football. When her mother said no, judo was settled on as a compromise. She went on to earn six national judo championships and along the way, at age 11, became the youngest judo athlete ever accepted to train at the United States Olympic Training Center.  NFL replacement referee Shannon Eastin at a Seattle Seahawks scrimmage on August 4, 2012 (Courtesy of Seattle Seahawks)  It’s a good thing she learned how to fight. Because now at age 42, Eastin has compromised over football again and is going to have to defend herself.  On Thursday Eastin will become the first female to officiate an NFL game. She will work as a line judge in the preseason match-up between the San Diego Chargers and the Green Bay Packers. It is an historical moment.  The problem is it will need to be marked with an asterisk.  As it stands now, the footnote will explain that Eastin served only as a replacement during an NFL referee lockout caused by a dispute over a new collective bargaining agreement.  The implication is that it took a lockout for a woman to put a crack in the glass ceiling of NFL officiating, and she did so only as a temporary labor scab until the male officials return.  The unfortunate reality is equally offensive. Eastin, whose officiating experience is highlighted by her last four years in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference of the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division 1-AA), is getting this honor at the expense of another more experienced woman.  Sarah Thomas has been on the NFL’s radar and officiating in the Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly known as Division 1) since 2007 when she became the first female ever to work a major college football game. Between then and last season, numerous articles citing expert sources have pegged her to become the first female NFL referee.  Writing for Fox Sports, former NFL vice president of officiating Mike Pereira wrote this Tuesday clarifying why Thomas is going to miss out on the honor of being the league’s first female ref:  Thomas, because of her experience, track record and great potential, has been selected by the NFL as a finalist to become an NFL official. That means, by default, she is among the NFL officials currently locked out by the league due to the ongoing dispute over a new collective bargaining agreement between the two sides.  Is there a penalty in football for stepping on your own teammate’s toes? Perhaps unsportswomanlike conduct? If so, throw the flag.  During her conference call with the press on Tuesday, Eastin said she had both positive and negative conversations with current and retired NFL referees over her decision to accept the league’s offer to replacement ref. In the end she decided to focus on the positive, and do what was best for her.  “For me I felt it was something I needed to do,” she said about agreeing to take the game. “I needed to make that step and see what comes my way from there.”
Shannon Eastin will become the NFL's first female referee at the expense of a more experienced female colleague locked out with other officials due to a labor dispute.  Where is the sportsmanship in that?