Who Is Maia Chaka? NFL’s First Black Female Game Official

Who Is Maia Chaka: The National Football League (NFL) has named Maia Chaka as its first Black female game official.

She received the call about the position on March 1, 2021. Chaka is a referee and physical education and health teacher who has been training with NFL since 2014. During her career she has also worked on the sidelines of XFL and college games.

Who Is Maia Chaka?

1. Along with being a referee, Maia Chaka has also been a physical education and health teacher for at-risk youth for the past decade.
2. She hopes that her new role as the referee in NFL will show her students that “if you have a passion for something or you have the drive for something, don’t let it hold you back just because you think that something may give you some type of limitation."
3. Her career began in 2006 officiating high school games and then moved up to the college ranks.
4. Chaka is the second-ever female NFL referee and first Black female referee. Sarah Thomas was the first female official and became the first woman to referee in a Super Bowl.
5. After scouts observed Chaka officiating college games, she and Thomas became two of twenty one referees chosen for the NFL Officiating Development Program.
6. Chaka worked NFL preseason games as part of the developmental program. Now she will be a part of the crew for regular season games.

Feature Image Credit: NBC News