NFL Gets First Female Referee Courtesy of Labor Dispute

When the Green Bay Packers play the San Diego Charges in a preseason match up on Thursday, they will also be making football history with the first female to officiate an NFL game.

Shannon Eastin, who has officiated high school and college games, will be in San Diego as part of the game’s officiating team, CBS Chicago reports. She is among the replacement officials hired by the NFL since the regular officials have been locked out in a labor dispute.

Eastin, with 16 years of experience, has worked in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. She also she also has worked the Arizona Cardinals’ Red and White game, a preseason scrimmage, according to CBS.

In addition to her love of football, the Tempe, Ariz. resident also holds six national judo championships. She was — at 11 years old — the youngest judo athlete to train at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

This is the first referee labor dispute since 2001, when a contract issue led to the referees missing the last exhibition game and first regular-season game of the season.