Pioneering Female Referee Files Explosive Lawsuit Against The NFL

This article was originally published on Total Pro Sports.

Robin DeLorenzo, one of the first three women to work full-time as an on-field NFL official, is now going after the league. She has filed a discrimination lawsuit against the league for alleged sexism that she experienced over a three-year period.

The suit claims that DeLorenzo faced “gender-based scrutiny, humiliation, and hostility” while serving as an NFL official from 2022 until her firing in February 2025. She was one of three refs removed from their positions and reassigned to NCAA power conferences. Those other officials were James Carter and down judge Robert Richeson.

At the time, it was reported that the refs could go through a developmental program and potentially regain their NFL jobs.

One referee told Ben Austro of Football Zebras that, “The culture is changing; it’s changing rapidly.” It’s changing into a competitive environment where everybody’s equal. There are no favorites. There’s no favoritism. There’s none of that; it’s all about performance.”

Robin DeLorenzo Wants Reinstatement And Damages From Losing Her Job

Former NFL ref Robin DeLorenzo filed a lawsuit against the league. She claims that she faced gender discrimination, retaliation, and harassment while in her role from 2022 to 2025, when the league fired her. She filed the lawsuit on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

DeLorenzo is seeking reinstatement along with unspecified damages. An NFL spokesperson on Tuesday called the lawsuit “baseless.”

“[DeLorenzo] 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 reads.

“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 then touches on a pattern of discriminatory indignities. It states DeLorenzo was provided with ill-fitting, man-sized clothing and instructed to showcase her ponytail through her hat. The suit says that “repeated references” to her hair made her want to chop it off.

Robin DeLorenzo says that her supervisor, Walter Anderson, former senior vice president of officiating, was the one who told her about that. Anderson is one of the officials named in the complaint.

“The comments were making her so uncomfortable she considered cutting off her hair,” the complaint says.

The men’s clothing that was too large for her forced her to purchase her own shorts and iron on the NFL patches herself. She also worked games without weather-resistant shirts or jackets that fit. “At times, the weather was simply unbearable, but she worked through it nonetheless,” the complaint says.

DeLorenzo said she was subject to “humiliation” as well. She was made to sing in front of the Pittsburgh Steelers training camp as a “rookie” official. DeLorenzo said Anderson recorded part of her performance despite her asking him not to.

Robin DeLorenzo said she was fired on Feb. 18, 2025.