Pioneering female NFL official sues league over her treatment and firing

NEW YORK (AP) — In a new lawsuit, one of the first three women to officiate an NFL game describes her three years at the pinnacle of her profession as a descent into the grip of a sexist institution unable to treat a woman as an equal.

Robin DeLorenzo cited gender-based scrutiny, humiliation and open hostility among the indignities she suffered from 2022 to 2025 as a league official.

The lawsuit in Manhattan federal court, filed Friday, sought reinstatement along with unspecified damages.

Messages seeking comment from the NFL and the NFL Referees Association were not immediately returned.

In a 2023 interview with NFL.com, DeLorenzo described her thrill at progressing at her father's urging through the ranks of officiating at the high school and college levels until the NFL's senior vice president of officiating allowed her father to deliver the news to her that she had been promoted to the NFL.

“Once he gave me the news, my dad and I just stared at each other crying for about five minutes," she told NFL.com. "It was the most magical night.”

The lawsuit, though, suggested that the magic quickly ended when the longtime New Jersey resident reported for duty after being sent man-sized clothing to wear and being told to let her ponytail show out the hole in the back of her hat, apparently to make clear a woman was on the field. It said repeated references to her hair eventually made her want to cut it off.

The lawsuit asserted that an NFL officials' crew chief told then-Pittsburgh Steelers' Coach Mike Tomlin one day during training camp that she should be made to sing in front of everyone, like rookie football players, because she was a new official.

As a result, she said, she “put on an utterly humiliating singing performance” in front of the Steelers' players, all the men on her officiating crew and her boss, who she said had promised not to record her but did so anyway, according to the lawsuit.

In the following weeks, she was repeatedly shamed, harassed and subjected to profanity-laced trash talk by her crew chief, a man who had recently been accused of mistreating another female employee, the lawsuit said. By the end of the season, the crew chief would not even speak to her, it added.

In 2024, DeLorenzo was forced to attend “an alleged training opportunity,” over her union's objection, that catered to lower-level college officials learning the trade — something no male official had ever been required to do, the lawsuit said.

“It was a male power play that served its purpose of humiliating plaintiff, shattering her confidence, and significantly hindering her NFL career,” the lawsuit said.

DeLorenzo was fired on Feb. 18, 2025.

“She worked her way through two decades of officiating — breaking barriers, making history, and outperforming expectations at every level — only to be met with hostility, retaliation, and systemic inequality the moment she stepped into a league that claims to champion opportunities for women,” the lawsuit said.

“Instead of supporting one of the only women on its officiating staff, the NFL exposed her to unchecked harassment, denied her the resources given to men, manipulated her training and grading opportunities, and ultimately ended her career based on tainted evaluations created by the very people who discriminated against her,” it said.

The lawsuit said the harm to her career was irreversible and the emotional and reputational damage was immense.