As the prospect of becoming the NFL’s first female football player grows closer to reality, Becca Longo feels the weight of history riding on her shoulders. She tunes out the noise as she zones in, on a quest to make college football history. As Longo prepares to send the ball through the uprights as a kicker, she’s also preparing to change the game of football. To millions of fans, she is a real-life Wonder Woman.
She’s not fighting fictitious villains, she’s fighting discrimination and people telling her she can’t live her dream. Here, we dive into Becca’s story and how close she is to becoming the NFL’s first female player.
Located about four hours south of Denver, the small town of Alamosa, Co., is home to about 10,000 people. It’s also home to Adams State University, a small Division II school. While the school isn’t known for its athletic department, it is known for being the school where Becca Longo kicks on the Grizzlies’ football team.
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But to arrive at Adams State, the school that would make NCAA history, we must first travel to the town that made her the NFL prospect she is today. Becca grew up in the sweltering heat of Arizona, where she developed a huge sense of perseverance to reach the athletic potential she now embodies.
Becca Longo grew up in an athletic family, and sports were as much a part of her life as the sweltering Arizona heat. Sports were her first true love and a love she’d never let slip away. From a young age, Longo displayed her athleticism that would help her make collegiate football history.
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To put her athleticism in perspective, Longo, at just 4 years old, was already standing up on water skis, and at 9, she was accurately kicking soccer balls. To her, sports came easy. She was a natural athlete and a born competitor. For as long as she can remember she was competing and battling with her older brother Bobby.
Becca’s older brother, Bobby, was a defensive end on their high school football team 11 years before she joined the program. His moves on the field as a defensive end influenced his little sister from a young age. He was an icon, at least to Becca. It was watching her brother that truly inspired Becca to pursue her dreams on the gridiron.
She wanted to follow in his footsteps and do everything he did, but she was determined to be better. If he went over two jumps on the water skis, she wanted three. If he played in high school, she wanted college. But college was out of the question. Football was a guy’s sport, a brutal game where girls could only be on the sidelines if they were cheerleaders.
They all said it was dangerous and too physical, she would break something and she’d get killed on the field. For a long time, Becca stuck with more traditional sports. She excelled at soccer using her powerful right leg to score goals and starred on the basketball court as a point guard with a smooth jump shot. But her aspirations never faded or dampened.
Football — and the memories of watching her older brother play — lingered in the back of her mind. She could still hear the crunching of pads during a collision and the crack of a kicker’s foot making contact with the ball. It was something about having such a strong memory associated with football that would perpetuate her need to be something bigger — a need to be part of the game. So how would this itch to be part of the game shape her life?
Following an ordinary spring day at Queen Creek High School near Chandler, AZ., a suburb about 30 minutes from Phoenix, a light went off in Becca’s head. She was walking with a friend from class as her freshman year (2013-14) wound down. Although her year was ending, her dreams were about to begin.
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The football team was practicing and Becca noticed something: there wasn’t a girl to be found on the field. No diversity in sight. No girl on the field defying tradition. No girl in pads ready to re-define the norm. This didn’t sit well with Becca. She wasn’t happy about it and her frustration with the system turned into raw motivation. She knew exactly what to do…
It was at that moment that Becca, a star soccer and basketball player for Queen Creek, declared to her friend that she was going to kick a different kind of ball. She would transition to a sport previously determined unsuitable for her, and for girls across America. She would kick a different kind of ball, but more importantly, she’d break boundaries and push the limits.
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She was going to be on the football team. She was going to be a three-sport athlete in the most non-traditional of ways. Becca Longo was going to be a star, something she already knew for a long time. Now, she made a public declaration to alert everyone else of her plans.
Later that day, Becca told her dad that she intended to kick for Queen Creek. She’s a natural athlete with a competitive nature, so her dad didn’t question it, nor was he surprised. He had seen it all from a young age, so Becca taking on a new challenge was as common as the sun rising.
Nothing could stand in the way of her dreams. Becca told ESPN about her will power and unstoppable drive to succeed: “I think it’s just something inside of me. I don’t always HAVE to prove myself — but I always WANT to.” And it’s that unbreakable, indeterminable mindset that would propel Becca into uncharted territory…
About a week after her declaration, Becca and her parents drove to Gilbert Christian High school, about 20 minutes from Queen Creek, to attend a kicking camp hosted by the Arizona Cardinals. Without much training, Becca dove head first into a sport she’d never played in a camp full of Arizona’s most impressive kickers.
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The camp was star-studded and featured numerous NFL Kickers, all of which were closely watching the performances of Arizona’s best high school kickers. With all eyes on her, Becca came through. Even though the pressure was great and the circumstances were daunting, Becca felt like she was where she was always meant to be. In fact, it’s that type of environment where Becca excels.
After the camp, former players approached Becca and her dad offering to train the future star. She was a diamond in the rough, but she was trainable. She had potential, and they wanted to help her rise to the top. But the Longos wanted to work with Alex Zendejas, a former University of Arizona kicker.
Zendejas, who runs a prestigious kicking academy in Phoenix, has coached seven Arizona All-State kickers. From the outset, Zendejas was intrigued by Longo. Hesitant, but intrigued. She was tall, athletic, and accurate. But above all, she had the motivation and drive to succeed at one football’s most challenging positions. The prospect of training her was both exciting and historic.
And before Zendejas officially agreed to work with Longo, he needed to see in person if she had the right blend of talent and drive. To dedicate his time and share his secrets of the trade, he needed to make sure she was worthy. Longo knew she would be, and the two would arrange a tryout to confirm the obvious.
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After a quick tryout, held on the football field after school, Zendejas knew she was it, because Becca possessed something that couldn’t be taught: motivation. Her form was good, her poise was better. Her technique wasn’t there yet, but it wasn’t far off. And considering she had never played football, that was a promising sign. She would be a kicker, and if she stuck with it, through the ups and downs, she could be a star.
The next day, Becca strolled into the Queen Creek athletic director’s office and calmly stated that she wanted to play football. Just like she had gone into the kicking camp with her head held high, not caving to the pressure of the unfamiliar, Longo once again stood strong staring down the unknown.
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Paul Reynolds, the athletic director, laughed and replied, “I guess you should go for it and try out for the team.” Not exactly a positive, reinforcing response, but it was a response that Longo would use to fuel her motivation. The athletic director’s laughs would turn into motivational soundbites that would help push her to become better, faster, and stronger.
Using the tools and skills she learned while training with Zendejas multiple times per week, Longo tried out for the junior varsity team at Queen Creek. She was poised and capable. Not intimidated by her status as the only girl trying out, Longo remembered her techniques. Follow through. Head down. Breathe.
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Little surprise here, and no surprise to Becca, she made it. And during her first season kicking footballs, Longo connected on 30 of 33 point-after-attempts and was a perfect 4-for-4 on field goals. Her longest was 30 yards. From the outside, Becca was the pleasant surprise of the season. A girl kicking on the football team with impressive accuracy. To her, it was expected, and anything less would have been a failure.
However, not everything was smooth sailing. Despite being a star on the team, Becca stood out at Queen Creek like a fish out of water. On or off the field, it didn’t matter. Pads or no pads. Her helmet couldn’t hide who she was, or if it did, it only lasted a few hours per week on gameday. She was bullied and made fun of. Her dream became someone else’s bullying material.
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“They’d post pictures on the internet and say, ‘Is that her jersey or her boyfriend’s?’” Longo told The Associated Press. “I got laughed at the entire year.” For some reason, her peers and classmates couldn’t cope with the idea that a female kicker was good. That a girl on the football team was also one of the best players.
Football is the ultimate meritocracy. If you’re good, you play. If you’re not, you don’t. For Becca Longo, this meritocracy still couldn’t dispel the rampant sexism and biases that continue in sports today. Although the bullying and tough days at Queen Creek would inevitably shape her and prepare her for life at large, where the real-world can be cold and unforgiving, Longo needed to make a change.
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Facing bullying and minimal respect from her peers, Longo decided to transfer to Basha High School, just 20 minutes down the road from Queen Creek. She took matters into her owns hands and decided to follow the path that was best for her. Her journey, at this point, was uncommon and nontraditional.
Although Basha High was right next door, the transfer made a world of difference. Becca fit in, rather than standing out. Her kicking was good, but more importantly, so were her peers. Yet, due to transfer rules, Becca was forced to sit out her junior year (2015-16). While not officially allowed to play in games, Becca spent the year with the team honing her craft.
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Perfecting her skills would eventually help her make NCAA history. Although sitting out for a year was hard on her, it was necessary. As they say, patience is a virtue, and being a kicker requires copious amounts of kicking. With the physical kicking skills she already possessed, Becca now had a mental edge on just about everyone else on the team.
When Becca made her long-awaited debut as Basha’s starting kicker, during her senior year in 2016, she was just as automatic as before, connecting on 35 of 38 extra points and nailing her only field goal of the season. It was as if she never left. She didn’t skip a beat and proved to players, fans, and coaches that she, a varsity kicker, belonged.
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The misses? They weren’t even her fault. They were blocked kicks, something she has no control over. As for her school, Becca fit right in and made an instant connection with both her classmates and teammates. No longer was she the girl kicker. She was just Becca, another kid on the roster trying to make the team better. The move to Basha, as they say in field goal terminology, was good.
With a stellar senior season — playing multiple sports — regional collegiate recruiters began to take notice. She was accurate, and more important, focused and dedicated. She was also on track to extend her kicking career. She may not be the next Lou Groza Award winner, given annually to the best Division I placekicker, but she was on track to kick for another year, assuming a few more things fell into place.
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While Becca and her father compiled video highlights from her two years of high-school kicking, Adams State offensive coordinator Josh Blankenship got word of an impressive kicker outside of Phoenix, the area that he recruits in. Rumor had it that a certain desert kicker was blossoming into a premier special-teams weapon.
Female or not, Adams State needed a kicker, so Blankenship packed his bags and headed to Basha to watch Becca kick in person. Finding a consistent kicker is much harder than people think, and when a school can lock up a skilled recruit who loves his/her job, that means four years of consistency in extra points and field goals.
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Impressed with what he saw, he invited her to a tryout at Adams State, a permissible move at the Division II level. Once again, Longo would be performing at a tryout with all eyes focused on her and her right leg. All eyes would be watching her technique and poise. Again, she would have to impress the coaches just like she had done with Zendejas and her two high school teams.
On a frigid February afternoon, in freezing Colorado temperatures, Becca, a snapper, a holder, and some coaches walked to the Adams State field to complete her tryout. Her one shot to impress the coaching staff. Her one chance to do the impossible: Be the first female to receive an NCAA scholarship to play football.
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This tryout would either help or hamper her quest for history. Fair or not, Longo knew that it was “do or die”. She knew the stakes were high, but she also knew what she was doing. She’d been there before and this time was no different. Technique and temperament. Master those and this tryout would be like every other day on the field.
At the tryout, with numbing temperatures and gusting winds, Becca remained unfazed, nailing 23 of her 25 field goal attempts. The wind, foreign atmosphere, and magnified pressure could not break her focus or alter her game. The Special Teams coaches were impressed. Head Coach Timm Rosenbach, a former NFL quarterback himself, who secretly viewed the tryout, was even more so.
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“I don’t care if the player’s a Martian…the gender part wasn’t really a factor to me,” Rosenbach told ESPN. Finally, it appeared, the meritocracy of sport was proving itself. At the college level nothing mattered but winning. Looks, backgrounds, economic statuses, or gender — none of it made a difference so long as you could produce and contribute to winning.
With that, Adams State extended a scholarship offer to Becca Longo, making her the first female to earn a football scholarship at the NCAA Division I or II level. Adams State wasn’t concerned with the precedent. They were concerned with winning, and winning now. In college football, time is of the essence when it comes to winning. Fan bases are impatient and boosters want wins right now.
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“I was completely shocked. Everybody who has it on video said my jaw dropped to the floor,” Longo said in an interview with CNN. And rightfully so. Female kickers had come before her, but none had done enough to earn a scholarship from the football team. No female kicker had proven to a college coach that she was worthy of a coveted scholarship offer.
“I was so emotional. I was just so grateful that somebody believed in me and that I could actually do it,” Longo told CNN. Even though her numbers in high school were rock-solid, Becca didn’t receive the attention she deserved. She was a girl, and girls aren’t supposed to be on the field making plays. Girls aren’t supposed to steal the spotlight and dominate.
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“I don’t know how many people told me I couldn’t play football and I should stop and give up,” Longo told the AP in 2018. “I look at where they’re at now and where I’m at. I mean, had I listened to them, I wouldn’t be where I am today
And that is something we can all learn from Becca. Perseverance is definitely the key. “I get a lot of messages asking for advice and I say the same thing,” Longo told the Associated Press. “‘Don’t stop because somebody tells you you’re not qualified or you can’t do something.'”
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No matter how long the odds, no matter what the detractors say, one must always believe in themselves and their abilities. Longo, on a daily basis, proved she learned the lesson and took it to heart. “I’m going to go in, I’m going to be ready to compete,” Longo said. “I’m not one to back down to anybody.
“If they want to think that, they can think that,” Longo told ESPN regarding the daily insults hurled at her online by doubters and nonbelievers. “Then I’m just going to kick a game-winning, 55-yard field goal … see how loud they are then. I’ve been doubted in everything I’ve done. Being mentally strong is the only defensive mechanism I have.”
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“It’s amazing to see Becca kicking down doors and for all of us who have been in the game, said former Arizona Cardinals interim assistant coach Jennifer Welter. “Every single one of us is pulling for her every single day.”
“Becca is a football player. That’s it,” Rosenbach told Bleacher Report, after Becca visited the Grizzlies spring practice in April 2018. With that statement, the coach and the team were behind Becca. Address the uniqueness of the situation one time and move forward and focus on football, the reason that Longo is with the team to begin with.
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“You will treat her like any other teammate and welcome her on to our team.” No problems, no distractions. Focus on football and let Becca do her thing on the kicking side. She earned her spot on the team and it would be a distraction to focus on anything but her kicking.
At Adams State, Becca has seamlessly transitioned into college life. Signed on to be a two-sport athlete (basketball and football), Longo is like everyone else on the gridiron. Unlike in high school, players on the football team do not view her as an outsider. They don’t view her as girl or a propaganda accessory.
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She’s just a player like everyone else, putting in the work trying to make the team better. No preferential treatment and no extra attention. Said senior quarterback Jorge Hernandez in an interview with ESPN, “She gets after it just like all of us. She’s not just here to be on the team. She’s here to play.”
“Everybody was just so warm and welcoming,” Longo told USA Today. And a welcoming atmosphere is conducive to winning, but at the end of the day, Longo still needs to make all her kicks to prove her worth. High school is in the past and college kicking is a different ball game with stiffer competition and heightened expectations.
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“She’s kind of put herself out there to let everyone know she wants to do this,” Rosenbach told CNN. “If she’s able to compete at a level we think she’s able to compete at, we should afford her that opportunity to do that.”
While Becca redshirted her freshman year, her sophomore year is a clean slate. She’s put in the work and is ready to kick when her name is called. Currently, Longo and fellow kicker Erick Ruiz are engaged in a weekly kicking battle to determine who gets the start. This is an equal playing field at its finest.
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Although not slated to start the first week, Longo remains optimistic. She knows she belongs and it will only be a matter of time until her name gets called. And when it does, she will trot out to the field a historic figure in her own right. She’ll be the female athlete that future generations look up to for inspiration and motivation, and she’ll be the kicker that booted her way into football history.
“They’ve accepted me for me. We’re all really close. Once you step off the field, everybody is a best friend,” Longo told the Associated Press. “I’ve done this for so long, so when I’m on the field, I am one of the guys, because that’s how they treat me,” Longo told the AP. “But sometimes, I’ll walk on the field by myself and think, ‘I’m playing college football. How crazy is that.'”
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Making friends on the team is incredibly important because nothing brings a team down like locker room tension. Had her teammates viewed her as a distraction or a token of political correctness, the team’s chemistry would have been off from the start.
When the time comes for Longo to boot her first collegiate kick for Adams State, it’ll be an NCAA first. It’ll be like a moon landing or discovery of the South Pole. Monumental for all of those who witness it and for those who hear about it years, even decades, later.
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She won’t be the first woman to score at the Division I FBS level, because that feat belongs to Katie Hnida. Hnida originally started at the University of Colorado and transferred to the University of New Mexico where she’d set the record by kicking a PAT in a blowout victory in 2003.
Nor will she be the first woman to score at the Division I level in general, a monumental accomplishment that helped female athletes understand that playing college football is possible and attainable. It may not be easy, but it is possible. It may not be a smooth ride, but it can be done.
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That incredible feat belongs to Ashley Martin, who successfully hit an extra point during the 2001 season while playing for Jacksonville State University, a Division I FCS program. Little known fact: Jacksonville State University is not located in Jacksonville, Fla. It’s located in Jacksonville, Alabama. Before being a Division I FCS school, the Gamecocks were Division II.
What Becca Longo will be is the first female on an athletic scholarship to take the field as a football player. She will be the first female to get her education for free thanks to a football scholarship. Even though Becca understands the magnitude of her historic feat, she can’t let it get to her head. She has a job to do, a job she must do well in order to live up to the hype and attention she’s garnered.
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Despite others scoring before her, none have done so as a player specifically recruited to play football. The others were walk-ons, invited to try out for the team, but not specifically recruited for it. Only time will tell how successful Becca will be, but there’s already a big ripple effect stemming from her improbable journey.
Longo tries to keep her excitement contained about the upcoming season, but there’s a certain palpable energy that can’t be bottled up. She’s an inspiration to millions of young fans and encourages them. One look at her Instagram page and you’ll see just how passionate she is about her career and motivating others.
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Said Longo in an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America, “If they want to play football, go out and play football. If they want to play hockey, they can go out and play hockey.” Her message is clear: follow your dreams and don’t let anyone or anything stand in your way, even if that means sticking out.
So far, through three games in Sept, 2018, Adams State University went 1-2, with Longo not appearing in any action. But she’s not just there just for looks or for positive publicity. She’s definitely not there to keep the bench warm. She will get into a game and, eventually, establish herself as the team’s primary kicker.
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When her first kick does, in fact, sail through the big yellow uprights, Longo and millions of others will celebrate the triumph. She’s extremely popular on social media and is closely followed by fans around the world, and it’s that sense of celebrity that makes Becca Longo so much more than just a kicker. The tale of Becca Longo is just getting started, and wherever it ends, it’ll be a fascinating journey that changed the lives of millions of young girls.
But that kick will have to wait a little bit longer than expected. Thanks to an untimely injury, Becca will spend much of the 2018 season stranded on the sideline wearing a walking boot rather than her traditional cleats. Like any injury or setback, it’s just temporary, and it’s that mindset that will keep her on top of her game.
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The pain will fade and will be just the same as when she left. In fact, there’s a strong chance she comes back even stronger than before.
“She’s got great mental toughness,” Rosenbach said. She has to, if she’s put herself in this position. By having that mental toughness, she deserves an opportunity right there to compete.”