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Sasha Santiago

Women Making History: Meet teen football game-changer Sam Gordon

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — At nine-years-old, Sam Gordon gained national attention with a video of her dominating her male teammates on the football field. Seven years later, she was featured as the only female to catch the football during the Super Bowl “NFL 100” commercial.

“You know everything about it (filming the commercial) was super amazing and it was great to be included in this and show off females in football,” Gordon told 1010 WINS’ Rebecca Granet.

The 16-year-old is also the first to receive the inaugural NFL Honors “Game Changer” award, and she is changing the game of football. In 2015, Gordon helped start what is believed to be the first all-girls tackle football league in the United States and this year they expect to have close to 500 participants.

“I think the fact that our league has been growing, that people who play in the league stay in it and who keep playing until they graduate, most of them, it shows that girls love football and that we want to play,” she said.

Gordon also says girls who play in the league gain valuable skills for their future.

“You see girls come onto the team who may be shy or maybe haven’t gotten the whole team experience yet and by the end of the season they have a family,” she said. “It’s really great to see them gain that leadership and some of those skills of just like having friends and being super out there and I think that’s been really amazing.”

But she says there is more work to be done.

“What we’re actually doing right now is we’re suing a couple high school districts on the basis of Title IX to get girls’ tackle football into high schools,” she said.

Gordon believes these are steps towards making the sport “equal and…fair for everyone.”

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