Former Raiders exec Amy Trask hopes Sarah Thomas gets booedBy Ryan Wilson | CBSSports.comJuly 7, 2015 
Sarah Thomas will be the NFL's first female official when the regular season kicks off in two months, and former Raiders executive Amy Trask hopes Thomas gets booed.Okay, it's slightly more nuanced than that. Trask, who works for CBS Sports during the football season, was the first female CEO in NFL history, so she offers a unique perspective on gender and sports."When Sarah Thomas throws a flag she shouldn't have thrown—which she will, as all officials do—she should be booed," Trask writes for TheMMQB.com. "When Sarah Thomas fails to throw a flag she should have -- which she will, as all officials do -- she should be booed. Sarah Thomas should be booed as loudly and as resoundingly as her male colleagues are booed."Gender equality means gender equality. And if gender equality is the expectation, all consequences that flow therefrom must be accepted, whether one likes them or not."Trask, who was a Raiders' executive from 1997-2013, says she "never encountered anything I believed to be gender-based resistance" during her time in the NFL and hopes Thomas doesn't either, whether it's her immediate boss, referee Pete Morelli, or the players. But if it does happen, Trask's advice is simple."What do I believe she should do if she does? Her job," Trask writes. "Sarah Thomas's best response to any such resistance is to do her job and to be the best official she can be. Time, effort and energy spent thinking about, concerning oneself with, focusing on or addressing such resistance is time, effort and energy wasted. Let those who are bothered by Sarah Thomas's gender waste their time, effort and energy on that."In 2013, Thomas, who was in the NFL's pipeline to become an official, told ABC News that her gender hasn't been an issue in a male-dominated field."I don't feel that it's been harder for me because I'm a female," she said at the time. "I think that we are just out here working as officials. ... I think just on our credentials, just as officials, I think that's what moves us along, not because of our gender or our race."Trask is right: There's no question Thomas will be booed. And it will almost certainly have everything to do with the fact that she's an official and nothing to do with her gender. Fanaticism is about absolutes -- either you're with them or you're not. And since officials -- black, white, man or woman -- do not fall into the former category, fans assume them to be in the latter.
