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SALT LAKE CITY — Sam Gordon is a sophomore at Columbia, but for a brief moment, the former Herriman football standout could be seen strapping on the pads to send another message.
The former 9-year-old girls football player who went viral for playing against boys appeared in a Super Bowl ad airing only in Utah to promote the Utah Girls Tackle Football League.
In the 30-second commercial, which was paid for by her dad, Brent, Gordon can be seen receiving an honor from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and other league officials as part of the NFL's 100th anniversary celebrations for her advocacy for the team while she talks about having to "fight to see my dream come true."
"Utah is the only place where girls who love football can play football," Gordon says in the video. "Be a part of history. Join the 650 girls who play in the Utah Girls Tackle Football League. The future of football is girls football."
Gordon continues to advocate for girls football at both the state and national level, even while standing out as a defender for the Columbia women's soccer team. The 5-foot defender jumped in to make 12 starts in 16 appearances as a first-year for the Lions after switching to the other futbol full-time.
Brent Gordon declined to say how much he paid for the Super Bowl ad in an interview with ESPN, but national commercials were going for around $7 million per 30-second spot, according to AdMeter. Each Super Bowl broadcast sets aside regional ads, or commercials that only air in targeted markets that cost significantly less, per Adage. The game's broadcaster also receives a limited amount of commercial airtime.
FOX re-aired the regional ad in Utah immediately following the conclusion of Super Bowl 57 between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.
"The commercial is a great way of showing people who might be skeptical about whether girls can play football, whether they really want to play football," he told ESPN. "It's essentially a 30-second pitch for why girls' football is important to people who are in the community and some who might even be decision-makers about whether girls' high school football will be offered or not here in Utah."
Brent Gordon was part of a lawsuit filed in June 2017 — the 45th anniversary of Title IX — against three school districts in Utah and the Utah High School Activities Association to try to get girls tackle football installed as a sanctioned high school sport in Utah. Gordon and his co-plaintiffs argued that a way to remedy the disparity in sports participation numbers among high school boys and girls was to offer tackle girls tackle football in the schools.
But Judge Howard C. Nielsen Jr. ruled in favor of the UHSAA and Jordan, Granite and Canyons school districts in March 2021, saying that neither the schools nor the association violated equal protection provisions of the Constitution or Title IX in the decision not to sanction the sport, the Deseret News reported.
Though the lawsuit ultimately ruled against girls tackle football, it helped establish the UHSAA's emerging sports process, which has paved the way for a handful of additional sanctioned sports in Utah, including boys and girls lacrosse, girls wrestling, competitive cheer and boys volleyball, which will begin play in 2024. The group arguing on behalf of girls tackle football appealed the decision and had it remanded, effectively reversing the district court's decision and reinstating the case, the plaintiffs told KSL.com.
As for football, the Utah Girls Tackle Football League currently boasts 650 participants among 34 club teams across the Wasatch Front, the club organization said last year during its championship weekend hosted at the University of Utah's Rice-Eccles Stadium. That's up from the roughly 50 girls who helped found the league in 2015.
Advocates for the league say that football teaches the girls lessons that go beyond the lines of sport. They're the kinds of life lessons that should be available for girls as well as boys.
"I want them to have every opportunity that my son had," Tyson Monson, one of the league's coaches who has four daughters who play football, told KSL-TV. "We're one step closer to equality."
The league, in which Sam Gordon played from eighth grade through high school after competing with boys, has also secured funding from a variety of sponsors, most notably Under Armour. Registration for next year is available through March 19, according to the league.
"Throughout history, women have had to fight to follow their dreams," Gordon said when the NFL recognized her with the league's "Game Changer" award. "I'm going to fight to see my dream come true."
Contributing: Brittany Tait, KSL-TV
