It was 33 years ago, and Gerry Austin still remembers the call. He was a high school principal in North Carolina, getting ready for the dismissal bell to ring at the end of the day -- March 4 at 3:02 p.m. -- when Austin learned he would become an official in the National Football League. "I can still tell you what day, what time and what I was doing when I got that phone call," said Austin, who officiated in the NFL from 1982-2007. "I think that's true for everybody taken in the NFL." It is true for Sarah Thomas. She remembers exactly when she learned she would become the first female official in NFL history. "That call came Thursday, April 2 at 10:47 a.m.," said the 41-year-old Thomas. "And when I looked at my phone, and it was area code 212, I was just praying that it was [NFL vice president of officiating] Dean Blandino on the other end of the line, and it was, and he just said it was an honor for me to have received it. "So I tell my girlfriends and family that I was...