Women in our society are greatly undervalued. We don’t have enough women in positions of power and influence. We don’t have enough women in key political positions. Fifty percent of our government representatives should be women. Women who do the same job as a man should be compensated at the same level. This is just common sense.
What we don’t need is a woman trying to play in the NFL. There’s no reason for it other than a publicity stunt.
This debate flares up from time to time (hello, Katie Hnida)
Although since the evolution of the CTE scare and increased talk about the long term effects of football related head injuries, the idea has lost some steam. In fact, it was pretty dormant until USA Women’s team soccer superstar Carli Lloyd decided maybe she should try to be an NFL placekicker.
Lloyd visited the Philadelphia Eagles training camp recently and took her turn trying long field goals. The 37-year-old soccer star obviously has a very strong leg, and she hit an unchallenged attempt from 55 yards away right down the middle. (It was not reported how many of her kicks she made or missed, just that she made one from 55 yards).
For her part, Lloyd was not there with the intent of trying out for the Eagles. She’s a fan and was just there to have some fun. But when media types got a hold of the story and began pushing her about the possibility, she got semi-serious about giving the NFL a try. She’s still considering it.
It’s not going to happen this season. Lloyd will be playing with Team USA through next summer’s Olympics. And the chances that she can show up next September at any NFL team’s HQ – after the 2020 season is already in full swing – and try to step into a football uniform are remote. And they should be. It’s a bad idea.
Her promoters all dismiss the notion that Lloyd (or any other female kickers that are sure to follow her lead) could get badly hurt on an NFL field (which of course they could.) How many field goals get blocked and have the kicker need to make a tackle? Not many, they proclaim. So that shouldn’t be of any concern then?
Of course it should…as should the truth that perhaps she won’t be more accurate than those kickers who’ve been kicking field goals – with defenders closing in on them – most of their lives. But there’s more to the job than field goals (and Lloyd has never faced a defensive unit trying to block a kick of course.) How many NFL teams don’t have their place kicker kicking off? How many NFL coaches would put a special teams unit on the field to kick off, while knowing full well that it was essentially his 10 defenders (Carli Lloyd isn’t bringing down an NFL kick returner…ever) vs. 11 on the return team? How would you feel if the team you root for pulled that?
So the real question here should be this: Why is anyone even considering this? What is there to be gained here? Just so someone can say “She was the first”…is that it? Would she be breaking down a barrier so that others can follow? Of course not.
What was gained by MMA star Conner McGregor boxing Floyd Mayweather? A nice pay-per-view payday for the participants? That’s about it.
There’s a perfectly good reason we have professional Men’s and Women’s golf, tennis, soccer and basketball. And all that seems to work just fine (other than that equal pay thing which needs to be fixed…) for those involved.
Carli Lloyd has nothing to prove to anyone. She’s a superstar in her sport. She’s reached the top of the mountain. She’s a World Champion. That should be enough. All she could do by trying out for the NFL is tarnish all that by participating in a publicity stunt. There are literally hundreds of young men better equipped and more talented at kicking an NFL football than Carli Lloyd will ever be. It may look easy, but it’s far from it. Placekickers are extremely well trained and conditioned to be actual football players.
Why can’t we just continue to enjoy watching the USWNT dominate the world competition in soccer, AND let our football players play their game? We don’t have to blend the two, do we? What actually stands to be gained?
