Las Vegas Raiders hire the first Black female team president in the NFL : NPR

Sandra Douglass Morgan speaks during a news conference announcing her as the new president of the Las Vegas Raiders NFL football team Thursday, July 7, 2022, in Las Vegas.

John Locher/AP

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John Locher/AP

Sandra Douglass Morgan speaks during a news conference announcing her as the new president of the Las Vegas Raiders NFL football team Thursday, July 7, 2022, in Las Vegas.

John Locher/AP

The NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders have hired the first Black female team president in the league’s history.

Sandra Douglass Morgan, a Las Vegas native, is not new to firsts. She was the first Black city attorney in Nevada, when she served for the City of North Las Vegas, and she was the first person of color named chair of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, the team said Thursday.

She is also an independent director at Allegiant Airlines, Caesars Entertainment and Fidelity National Financial, Inc.

“It is the honor of a lifetime to join the Raiders at one of the most defining times in the team’s history,” Morgan said. “This team’s arrival in Las Vegas has created a new energy and opportunities we never dreamed possible. I look forward to taking this team’s integrity, spirit and commitment to excellence on the field into every facet of this organization.”

Morgan is a graduate of Eldorado High School; the University of Nevada, Reno; and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

“The Las Vegas connection was not a criteria, but it was something that was on the positive side of the ledger,” team owner Mark Davis said. “Obviously, somebody that knows this community, knows the people in it I think is very important for us to continue to build out foundation in Las Vegas.”

The hire of Morgan comes less than a year after Jon Gruden was dismissed as head coach of the team. In October 2021, a league investigation into the Washington Football Team examining workplace misconduct uncovered emails Gruden had sent years earlier that showed he used racist, misogynistic, and homophobic slurs.

Davis said the search for a new president took 10 months.

Morgan said while she has experienced many firsts throughout her career, she never wants to be the last person breaking barriers.

“I want to get to a point, obviously, where there is no more firsts,” she said. “If I could be an inspiration, or help, or open doors for any other woman and girl out there, then that’s an incredible accomplishment for me.”