Women's gridiron football (including American football and Canadian football) is a form of the sport played by women. Most leagues in the United States, such as the Women's Football Alliance, play by rules similar to men's tackle football. [1] Although women's flag football is emerging as a collegiate sport, [2] women playing gridiron football at the college level have historically joined men's teams, often (though not exclusively) as placekickers. [3]
The following is a list of some of the most notable female American football players.
Players in traditional ("full pads") tackle football leagues.
Almost all of the women who have played on predominantly male college and professional football teams have done so by playing either the placekicker or holder positions. [40] Both positions are rarely involved in the full contact present in American football.
Katharine Anne Hnida is a former American football player who became the first woman to score in an NCAA Division I-A game, college football's highest level. She accomplished this as placekicker for the University of New Mexico Lobos on August 30, 2003.
Women's gridiron football, more commonly known as women's tackle football, women's American football, women's Canadian football, or simply women's football, is a form of gridiron football played by women. Most leagues play by similar rules to the men's game. Women primarily play on a semi-professional or amateur level in the United States. Very few high schools or colleges offer the sport solely for women and girls. However, on occasion, it is permissible for a female player to join the otherwise male team.
In American football, the placekicker, or simply kicker, is the player who is responsible for the kicking duties of field goals and extra points. In most cases, the placekicker also serves as the team's kickoff specialist and occasionally in youth football, also acts as the punter.
A punter (P) in gridiron football is a special teams player who receives the snapped ball directly from the line of scrimmage and then punts (kicks) the football to the opposing team so as to limit any field position advantage. This generally happens on a fourth down in American football and a third down in Canadian football. Punters may also occasionally take part in fake punts in those same situations, when they throw or run the football instead of punting.
In gridiron football, the holder is the player who receives the snap from the long snapper during field goal or extra point attempts made by the placekicker. The holder is set on one knee seven yards behind the line-of-scrimmage. Before the play begins, he places the hand which is closest to the placekicker on the ground in a location designated by the kicker's foot, with his forward hand ready to receive the snap. After receiving the snap, the holder will place the football on the turf, or block, ideally with the laces facing the uprights and the ball accurately placed where the backhand was initially, then balancing the ball with one or two fingers until the ball is kicked.
A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. The entire ball must pass through the vertical plane of the goal, which is the area above the crossbar and between the uprights or, if above the uprights, between their outside edges. American football requires that a field goal must only come during a play from scrimmage while Canadian football retains open field kicks and thus field goals may be scored at any time from anywhere on the field and by any player. The vast majority of field goals, in both codes, are placekicked. Drop-kicked field goals were common in the early days of gridiron football but are almost never attempted in modern times. A field goal may also be scored through a fair catch kick, but this is also extremely rare. In most leagues, a successful field goal awards three points.
James Eugene O'Brien is an American former professional football player who was a placekicker and wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL). O'Brien played for the Baltimore Colts from 1970 to 1972 and the Detroit Lions in 1973. O'Brien is best remembered for kicking the game-winning field goal in the final seconds of Super Bowl V, making him the first of only three placekickers to accomplish such a feat.
Efrén Herrera is a Mexican-American former football player who was a placekicker in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the UCLA Bruins and was selected in the seventh round of the 1974 NFL draft. Herrera played in the NFL for the Dallas Cowboys, Seattle Seahawks and Buffalo Bills. He also was a member of the Oklahoma Outlaws in the United States Football League (USFL).
Elizabeth Heaston Thompson is an American athlete who is the first woman ever to score in a college football game. She accomplished this feat on October 18, 1997 as a placekicker for the Willamette Bearcats football team of Willamette University, which then competed in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) for small colleges. She also played women's soccer for Willamette as a defender. Heaston's accomplishment was widely noted by the media and the sports community.
Ashley Martin is an American athlete who became the first woman to play and score in an NCAA Division I American football game, and one of the first ever to score points in any college football game. She accomplished this feat August 30, 2001, as a placekicker for the Jacksonville State University Gamecocks, where she also played on the women's soccer team. Martin played at Division I-AA. The only earlier female player to score in a college football game was Liz Heaston, who kicked for Willamette University, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) school, in 1997.
James Redwick "Red" Weaver was an American football player and coach.
Julie Harshbarger is an American football placekicker who is currently a free agent. She is most known for being the first woman to score a field goal in Indoor football, as a member of the Chicago Cardinals of the Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL), and, at seven seasons and counting, having the longest documented career for a woman playing professional football in leagues dominated by men.
Tonya Lynn Butler is an American athlete who is the first woman ever to score a field goal in a college football game. She accomplished this feat on September 13, 2003, as a placekicker for the University of West Alabama Tigers, which was competing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II.
Alan Scott Gendreau is an American former college football player for the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders. The placekicker was openly gay to his teammates. He ended his college career as the leading scorer in Sun Belt Conference history.
Chris Sailer is an American football trainer of kicking specialists. He works with high school placekickers and punters and evaluates them for college football programs. Sailer was named an All-American as both a kicker and a punter while playing college football for the UCLA Bruins. He played professionally in the Arena Football League (AFL).
Sarah Fuller is an American former soccer player who was a goalkeeper for Minnesota Aurora FC in the USL W League. She began her college soccer career with the Vanderbilt Commodores, where she also played college football as a placekicker.
Luverne Nora Wise Albert was an American football placekicker and quarterback for Atmore High School who was the first female player to score on a men's team. She was the team's backup kicker in the 1939 and 1940 seasons, and made extra points "after the team was up by 20 points." She also occasionally played quarterback, and was named honorable mention all-state as a senior.
Will Reichard is an American football placekicker and punter for the Alabama Crimson Tide. He is the all-time NCAA Division I FBS scoring leader.
Mitchell Fineran is an American football placekicker for the Purdue Boilermakers of the Big Ten Conference. Prior to enrolling at Purdue as a graduate transfer in 2021, he attended and played football at Samford University in the Southern Conference (SoCon) of the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).
Case deBruijn is a Dutch former American football punter and placekicker. He played one game in the National Football League (NFL) for the Kansas City Chiefs as well as two seasons in the United States Football League (USFL) for the Oklahoma/Arizona Outlaws. He played college football at Idaho State and was drafted in the eighth round of the 1982 NFL Draft by the Chiefs.