62nd Issue: Women in (American) Football
Today I watched a documentary about women in baseball, and that made me curious about women in (American) football. Like how softball is the ‘girl’ version of baseball, it seemed that touch football was the ‘girl’ version of tackle football. However, I did find that there are quite a few girls and women playing tackle football.
In 2015, a young girl called Sam Gordon and her father formed the first all-girls tackle football league in the United States, called the Utah Girls Football League. As of 2019, the league had nearly five hundred girls, from ages 9 to 19. Some argue that tackle football is not safe for girls, given the high occurences of concussions, but then why is it safe for boys? In my opinion, just ban tackle football entirely because it’s very dangerous, but I know my opinion is not a mainstream one, and also I’m not very well-informed on sports in general.
Anyway, I went looking into women’s football for adults, and found that there are basically no high school or college teams. If you’re a young woman and want to play football, you have to join a male team. There are several women’s tackle football leagues, but I had not heard of any of them until today. They are growing though, and getting more attention in the media than before.
The women who have played in men’s college and pro football games have not been in any position where they get tackled. Usually they are placekick holders or placekickers. The first female professsional football player was Patricia Palinkas in 1970, who was the placekick holder for her husband who was a placekicker. It is presumed that she was hired partially as a publicity stunt for the media attention.
In 1997, Liz Heaston was the first woman to play and score in a college football game. There have been several other women since then who did the same, but it is relatively rare. Jennifer Welter was the first female player at the male professional level to be running back, in 2014. There are several female coaches and owners of football teams, but as far as players who are not placekickers, there have been quite few.
In high school sports, there have been many girls who have chosen to play football, starting way back in 1939 but really picking up steam in the 90s and 2000s. A lot of them have also been voted homecoming queen or princess, which is a fun fact that is of no use to anyone, but makes for great book and movie ideas. In 1981, Tami Maida was junior varsity quarterback in her high school in Oregon, and CBS made a movie about her starring Helen Hunt called Quarterback Princess.
There is a whole list of female football players on Wikipedia which you can go look at, but one that I looked into a little further was Holley Mangold. She played as an offensive lineman, and is the younger sister of an NFL offensive lineman Nick Mangold. However, she decided that instead of football, since there wasn’t really any opportunity for her to do much more with that, she wanted to get into weightlifting. She competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics, and now runs a fitness/coaching company with a partner that focuses on women with bigger bodies which is awesome.
Anyway, not football related, but if you want to read about the seventeen year old girl who defeated two of the biggest baseball players of the time, check out this article about Jackie Mitchell. Also here's some pictures of football players who are also homecoming queens at their high schools:
In 2015, a young girl called Sam Gordon and her father formed the first all-girls tackle football league in the United States, called the Utah Girls Football League. As of 2019, the league had nearly five hundred girls, from ages 9 to 19. Some argue that tackle football is not safe for girls, given the high occurences of concussions, but then why is it safe for boys? In my opinion, just ban tackle football entirely because it’s very dangerous, but I know my opinion is not a mainstream one, and also I’m not very well-informed on sports in general.
Anyway, I went looking into women’s football for adults, and found that there are basically no high school or college teams. If you’re a young woman and want to play football, you have to join a male team. There are several women’s tackle football leagues, but I had not heard of any of them until today. They are growing though, and getting more attention in the media than before.
The women who have played in men’s college and pro football games have not been in any position where they get tackled. Usually they are placekick holders or placekickers. The first female professsional football player was Patricia Palinkas in 1970, who was the placekick holder for her husband who was a placekicker. It is presumed that she was hired partially as a publicity stunt for the media attention.
In 1997, Liz Heaston was the first woman to play and score in a college football game. There have been several other women since then who did the same, but it is relatively rare. Jennifer Welter was the first female player at the male professional level to be running back, in 2014. There are several female coaches and owners of football teams, but as far as players who are not placekickers, there have been quite few.
In high school sports, there have been many girls who have chosen to play football, starting way back in 1939 but really picking up steam in the 90s and 2000s. A lot of them have also been voted homecoming queen or princess, which is a fun fact that is of no use to anyone, but makes for great book and movie ideas. In 1981, Tami Maida was junior varsity quarterback in her high school in Oregon, and CBS made a movie about her starring Helen Hunt called Quarterback Princess.
There is a whole list of female football players on Wikipedia which you can go look at, but one that I looked into a little further was Holley Mangold. She played as an offensive lineman, and is the younger sister of an NFL offensive lineman Nick Mangold. However, she decided that instead of football, since there wasn’t really any opportunity for her to do much more with that, she wanted to get into weightlifting. She competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics, and now runs a fitness/coaching company with a partner that focuses on women with bigger bodies which is awesome.
Anyway, not football related, but if you want to read about the seventeen year old girl who defeated two of the biggest baseball players of the time, check out this article about Jackie Mitchell. Also here's some pictures of football players who are also homecoming queens at their high schools:
Don't miss what's next. Subscribe to Nicole's Newsletter: