Vanderbilt’s football program has made history, which is not something that is often said about a game in which they lost 41-0. Sarah Fuller, a goaltender for the Commodores soccer program, became the first woman to play in a Power Five football game this past weekend.
The reaction, however, has been incredibly negative, dismissing Fuller’s accomplishment as nothing more than a publicity stunt. Twitter has absolutely exploded with people coming out of the woodwork to denounce Vanderbilt Football and Fuller herself. To do this, opponents of the decision have resorted to saying that she simply could not compete on a physical or athletic level, as well as criticizing her performance (a single squib kick) on Saturday and dismissing the move as a publicity stunt.
Now, my question is this: why are people so upset about this?
First of all, let’s state the obvious here. Sarah Fuller was not slotted in to start at middle linebacker. She is a kicker. In terms of stature, Fuller does not actually seem that far off from the average male kicker, standing at 6-2. This puts her right in the same ballpark as Justin Tucker, Matt Prater and Rodrigo Blankenship, three of the NFL’s top kickers.
Now, I have always had the mindset that kickers are a ridiculously important part of football and that it takes tremendous athletic prowess to be able to do what they do. That being said, it is obviously not the most physical position, which is why kickers often look quite different from the rest of the team in terms of physical stature. On top of that, how many times in a game does the average college/NFL kicker actually get hit? The answer is a very small number.
As far as her performance on the weekend, I am not quite sure how you could make a complete judgment off of one squib kick (which was executed perfectly, by the way). She simply did what was asked of her, as Pat McAfee pointed out in an impassioned tweet:
To be fair, if she had gone 0-5 on field goal attempts and absolutely botched multiple kickoffs, I wouldn’t be writing this. At that point, it would be clear that she is not fit for the job. That being said, we’d be having the exact same conversation if a male kicker had played that poorly.
At the end of the day, Sarah Fuller was asked to help out her school’s football program due to Covid-19 protocols, she was given about a week to practice, and she did everything that was asked of her on the field. What could a male kicker in that situation possibly have done differently? The answer is nothing. With a final score of 41-0, Fuller only got the chance to kickoff once and her team didn’t even sniff field goal range.
At this point, it is unclear whether or not Sarah Fuller can actually play; I would not be intellectually honest if I used the argument of a small sample size one way and not the other. What is clear, however, is that what she did this weekend took a tremendous amount of courage and she should be commended for that, not undermined.
Fuller now represents the idea that female athletes can compete on any level, regardless of gender, which is an incredibly positive message for the young girls who strive to be athletes. If she can play, she should be allowed to do so. Really, anything that creates a more inclusive environment within the football community (or any sport) without putting the competitiveness of the game in jeopardy is a good thing, right? In an incredibly difficult time, for football and in general, Fuller’s accomplishment should be considered a bright spot.
If you are one of those people who thinks that a woman playing college football is ridiculous, I would challenge you to sit back and evaluate why you hold those opinions.
I will leave you with the following question: Realistically, if she can compete, why shouldn’t she be allowed to do so?
