Sam Gordon was the only girl in a tackle football league when she started playing the game at 9 years old.
She felt supported by her male teammates but faced skepticism by opposing players and their parents. The Utah high school student has loved the grace and adrenaline of football since she was a kid. Millions viewed videos of her playing and that catapulted the now 17-year-old Gordon to a place in the country’s most popular sport, including the ESPN awards and Super Bowl commercials. But very few other women have gotten a toehold in the sport. Now, Gordon hopes she can give girls a chance to play on female-only high school teams through a lawsuit.