Sarah Thomas revealed that she was voted out of a men's basketball league just before starting journey to becoming NFL's first female official
- Sarah Thomas made history as the first woman in NFL history to officiate a Super Bowl.
- Before she began her football officiating journey, Thomas played in a men's basketball league.
- In an interview on NBC's "TODAY," Thomas said that a pastor pushed her out of a church league.
Sarah Thomas made NFL history as the first woman to officiate a Super Bowl, but football wasn't the sport that first captured her attention.
The 47-year-old mother of three spent many years working her way up the ranks, becoming the first woman to officiate a major college football game, an NCAA bowl game, and an NFL playoff game before arriving at Super Bowl LV. But even before those early days working high school football games, Thomas had her eye on basketball.
Thomas grew up playing sports and was a high school softball star before competing for the University of Mobile women's college basketball team. Once she graduated, she played in a men's basketball church league. But after multiple years and countless games facing off against the boys, a pastor took issue with her involvement and pushed her out of the league.
"I was voted out of the men's basketball league that I had been in for three years," Thomas told "TODAY" co-anchors Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb Wednesday morning.
After she was ousted from the league, Thomas searched high and low for another way to get involved in competitive sports. Not too long after that, an answer presented itself via her brother.
"A couple of months after that, I was just on the phone with my older brother," Thomas said. "And I asked what he was doing, and he said he was going to a football officials meeting. And I said, 'Can girls do that?' He was like, 'I guess so, sis. Be there at 6:00, and don't be late.'"
"So, that's where it started," she added.
The rest is, quite literally, history.
Check out Thomas' full interview on NBC News' "Today" below: