Jacksonville Jaguars defensive tackle Sen’Derrick Marks questions the NFL’s motives in hiring Sarah Thomas, its first female referee.
Marks implied that the NFL made a sort of stunt out of the situation, using the hiring of Thomas as a way to pander to certain groups of people. In fact, he even added the drafting of openly gay player Michael Sam to his comments to drive the point home.
“For women, it’s great,” Marks told TMZ. “Ain’t nothing wrong with it, especially as long as she knows what she’s doing.”
But the player went on to intimate that he thought it was really more of a publicity stunt.
“It’s just like the Michael Sam situation,” Marks continued, “if he wasn’t gay, he would have gone undrafted. Instead, the league drafts him because I think they are trying to monopolize every aspect of the world. The same thing with a female ref. For the league, it’s great publicity. The NFL is all about monopolizing every opportunity.”
“I hope it works for her,” the player concluded.
Marks has been with the Jaguars for two seasons but is now injured and recovering from a torn ACL suffered in the last game of the 2014 season.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com
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