Sunday’s Patriots-Chargers playoff contest made history, and not just because New England advanced to an unprecedented eighth straight conference title game. The victory over Los Angeles by Tom Brady and Co. also saw Sarah Thomas become the first female on-field official in the league’s postseason history.
Thomas, already the first woman to officiate a college football bowl game and the NFL’s first full-time female official, worked as the down judge for the game. The Mississippi native was hailed by her state’s senior U.S. senator, Roger Wicker, who noted that she was spending Sunday in chilly conditions at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.