This female college football player is making history

Of the many ads featured during the Super Bowl this past February, a Toyota commercial stood out to many. It featured a young woman in a black jersey and black eye paint leading a group of burly male football players. The girl was Toni Harris, who, a voiceover detailed, was told she couldn’t accomplish a lot of things, including making it on to a football team or winning a scholarship to play football in college. But she did. At 22 years old, standing at 5 feet, 7 inches and weighing 164 pounds, this year Harris became one of the only women to ever earn a scholarship to play college football.

From 2017 to 2018, Harris played for East Los Angeles College and her accomplishments on the field earned her four scholarship offers from NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) schools. Harris ultimately chose Central Methodist University in Fayette, Missouri, for whom she will play the free safety position. This accomplishment makes her the first woman to ever receive a scholarship to play a defensive position. In 2017, Becca Longo became the first woman ever to earn a scholarship to play college football; she signed to Adams State University as a kicker. Harris’ position, however, is the last line of her team’s defense and as such requires that she can run with and tackle other athletes.

Harris has faced mixed reactions to her new position on Central Methodist University’s team. “Some [players] are surprised, some are angry, and some are supportive,” Harris told Essence in February.

But even so, Harris isn’t deterred from her dream of making it to the NFL. “I’ve been told I won’t go far, I have no talent, and I’ll never make it to the NFL,” Harris said in the same interview. “But I have a will never to quit.”

Women in all male-dominated fields are often subjected to a lack of support and discouragement, and women working in the football industry are no exception. Even though women account for nearly half of the NFL’s fan base, they make up just a third of league employees, according to CBS News. As of the beginning of the 2019 season, only four women held assistant coach positions on NFL teams. Harris’ representation on the college field, as well as a slow increase in women taking jobs off the field in the NFL, are crucial to helping women become more professionally involved in football in all areas of the sport.

In addition to bias, Harris overcame a more personal obstacle in her efforts to play football. At age 18, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. “You take two steps forward and get sent five steps back,” Harris told SB Nation this year about this setback. “I did want to give up, I thought things were over.” But she attributes her recovery to her own persistence and to her faith and family. “I’ve fought through everything else in my life,” said Harris, and only four years after losing half her body weight due to her cancer, Harris had her pick of four scholarship offers.  

Harris is an inspirational figure to many not only because of what she’s already achieved but also because she continues to compete and excel in a realm historically owned and maintained by men. Hopefully, Harris will continue to change the way we evaluate athletic talent and perhaps even look at the game of football, in doing so joining the annals of female athletes who’ve changed their sports forever.