One of the first female referees ‘considered cutting off her hair’ amid discrimination from NFL officials, lawsuit says
· Yahoo Sports
One of the NFL’s first female referees said she considered cutting off her hair after league officials allegedly instructed her to style it in a way that would clearly mark her as a woman on the field, according to a new harassment lawsuit.
Robin DeLorenzo, a trailblazing full-time on-field official, filed the complaint Friday in Manhattan federal court, accusing the league of subjecting her to a three-year pattern of “gender-based scrutiny, humiliation and hostility” from 2022 until her dismissal in February 2025.
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DeLorenzo began her officiating career working high school games before advancing to the college level, eventually earning a position with the NFL. But in her complaint, she describes a workplace that “fixated on her gender from day one.”
According to the filing, the NFL “views female officials as novelties to be controlled, disciplined, or pushed out — never as professionals entitled to equal opportunity,” theNew York Timesreports.
The lawsuit seeks reinstatement and unspecified damages. The NFL, however, denied the allegations, calling them “baseless” and maintaining that DeLorenzo’s termination was performance-related.
Former NFL ref Robin DeLorenzo says her supervisor asked her to wear her ponytail through the back of her hat, ignoring her preference to tuck it under (Getty Images)“The NFL is committed to providing a fair and supportive environment for all of its game officials,” an NFL spokesperson told The Independent. “Ms. DeLorenzo was terminated following three seasons of documented underperformance. The allegations in this lawsuit are baseless, and we will vigorously defend against them in court.”
In the suit, DeLorenzo alleges that her supervisor, Walter Anderson, former senior vice president of officiating, instructed her to wear her hair in a ponytail pulled through the back of her hat rather than allowing her to tuck it under as she preferred.
“The comments were making her so uncomfortable she considered cutting off her hair,” the complaint, reviewed by the NYT, says.
DeLorenzo also claims she was not properly outfitted by the league. She says she was routinely issued oversized men’s uniforms, forcing her to buy her own properly fitting shorts and apply NFL patches herself. The complaint adds that she was never provided with undergarments or weather-appropriate gear that fit correctly, leaving her to work games in uncomfortable and, at times, harsh conditions without adequate protection.
Beyond equipment issues, the lawsuit describes moments DeLorenzo viewed as humiliating. At a Pittsburgh Steelers training camp, she said she was treated like a rookie player and made to sing in front of others, a practice typically reserved for first-year athletes. She also alleges that Anderson recorded part of the performance despite her asking him not to, which only added to her embarrassment.
DeLorenzo further alleges ongoing verbal abuse and harassment from a crew chief, including profanity-laced criticism and a refusal to communicate with her by the end of the season.
DeLorenzo says the NFL workplace 'fixated on her gender from day one,' claiming the league treated female officials as outsiders instead of as equals (Getty Images)In a 2024 instance, DeLorenzo says she was required to attend a developmental training program intended for lower-level college officials, a requirement she says was never imposed on her male counterparts. The training clinic was run by Anderson and Byron Boston, the other official named as a defendant.
“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, per the New York Post.
DeLorenzo pushed back on being required to attend, and the NFL Referees Association eventually stepped in, filing a grievance on her behalf.
That grievance led to a partial win with the league agreeing to reimburse her expenses and pay her for attending the clinic. Still, DeLorenzo argues the situation was part of a bigger pattern, and that she was being held to “more stringent” standards than her male colleagues.
DeLorenzo was fired on February 18, 2025. The NFL employed more than 100 game officials that year, but only a small handful were women. Sarah Thomas broke barriers as the league’s first full-time female official when she was hired in 2015. She was followed by Maia Chaka in 2021, and then DeLorenzo in 2022.