Replay official Terri Valenti retires after 4 NFL seasons

Terri Valenti, the first female NFL replay official, has retired from the league — confirmed by the NFL — after serving 4 seasons as a replay official on crews led by referees Tony Corrente, John Hussey, and Craig Wrolstad. Valenti, 60, officiated in both the United Football League and Arena Football League as a line of scrimmage official before joining the replay ranks of the NFL in 2012 as a replay communicator.

After serving as a replay communicator for 4 seasons, Valenti was promoted to replay assistant in 2016, and then promoted once again to replay official the following season. A resident of Palo Alto, Calif., Valenti served as the replay assistant for San Francisco 49ers games in the 2016 season, when replay assistants were locally assigned. Valenti also served as a replay official in the now-defunct Alliance of American Football in spring 2019. Early in that season, she was broadcast during a replay review in which she worked through a potential catch in the end zone.

Valenti officiated just one postseason game as a replay official: the 2018 AFC Divisional Playoff between the Colts and Chiefs.

Following the news of the hiring of Maia Chaka, the first Black woman to officiate in the NFL, there is potential for a woman to fill Valenti’s seat in the replay booth, as the NFL hired four women to fill replay roles last offseason.

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