Robin DeLorenzo — one of the first three women to officiate an NFL game — has filed a discrimination lawsuit against the league for alleged sexism that she experienced over a three-year period.
The suit, filed in Manhattan federal court on Friday, claims that DeLorenzo faced “gender-based scrutiny, humiliation, and hostility” while serving as an NFL official from 2022 until her firing in February 2025.
The pioneering referee is seeking reinstatement, along with unspecified damages.
“[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 depicts a pattern of discriminatory indignities, which began when DeLorenzo, 59, was provided with ill-fitting, man-sized clothing and instructed to showcase her ponytail through her hat, seemingly to emphasize that a woman was on the field.
The suit says that “repeated references” about her hair made her want to chop it off.
The legal filing also claimed that one day during training camp, an NFL officials crew chief told former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin to have DeLorenzo “put on an utterly humiliating singing performance,” as if she were an NFL rookie — an incident the suit says compounded her ongoing emotional distress during her tenure.
Not long after, the suit asserts, DeLorenzo was repeatedly exposed to harassment and derogatory remarks from her crew chief, who had already been accused of mistreating another female employee. By the end of the season, the crew chief refused to speak to her.
The lawsuit also claims that in 2024, DeLorenzo was forced to attend “an alleged training opportunity” designed for lower-level officials — a requirement that no male official had ever faced.
“It was a male power play that served its purpose of humiliating the plaintiff, shattering her confidence, and significantly hindering her NFL career,” the suit declared.
The suit emphasizes that DeLorenzo’s eventual termination on Feb. 18, 2025, has not only impeded her career trajectory but also inflicted sustained emotional damage.
As it stands, the NFL and the NFL Referees Association have yet to publicly address the allegations.