Sandra Douglass Morgan has just made NFL history. The former Nevada Gaming Control Board chairwoman, also the first Black woman to hold said role, has just broken ground as the first-ever Black woman to serve as president of an NFL team.
Morgan was welcomed to preside over the Las Vegas Raiders by team owner and managing general partner Mark Davis at a press conference on Thursday.
“I am thrilled that Sandra has agreed to join the Raiders family,” Raiders owner Davis said in a statement obtained by ESPN. “Her experience, integrity and passion for this community will be invaluable to our organization. From the moment I met Sandra, I knew she was a force to be reckoned with. We are extremely lucky to have her at the helm.”
Morgan expressed both gratitude and excitement about the opportunity to serve her hometown team in this capacity.
“We have so much more to do, and I’m excited to be at the helm of that growth and look forward to ushering in the new chapter for the Raiders,” Morgan said at her introduction ceremony at Allegiant Stadium. “The fact is, I have accepted this role because I believe in the promise of the Raiders, I believe in the future of the Raiders, and I believe in this organization’s tenets of community, integrity and, most of all, commitment to excellence.”
“It’s no secret that this organization has faced some recent challenges, but I want to be clear, I am not here to sweep anything under the rug or avoid problems or concerns that need to be addressed,” Morgan said, addressing a number of issues that have persisted in the Raiders’ front office and buzzing of a supposedly hostile work environment for team executives.
“It is not lost on me that this is a critical and defining moment in the NFL. It’s important to me and it is my intention to make a meaningful contribution well beyond the Raiders family.”
This is one of many roles Morgan has been the first Black woman to hold. She was also the first Black city attorney in the state of Nevada when serving from 2013 to 2016 and the first person of color at all to chair the Nevada Gaming Control Board. With this role with the Raiders, she becomes both the third Black person and the third woman to ever serve as president of an NFL team.
“I definitely never want to be the last,” Morgan said of her newest position and latest first. “I want to get to a point where there [are] no more firsts.”