HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS
ESPN: Super Bowl LVII To Feature Girls’ Tackle Football Commercial In Utah
SALT LAKE CITY – A commercial promoting girls’ tackle football will be featured only in the state of Utah during Super Bowl LVII, according to ESPN’s Heather Dinich.
Super Bowl LVII will take place at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on Sunday, February 12.
The game will feature a matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles.
However, in between game action, fans can turn their attention to expensive commercials.
One of those advertisements will promote girls’ tackle football and will only be shown to viewers of the game in the Beehive State.
“One 30-second Super Bowl commercial will air on Sunday, only in the state of Utah, and it will be unlike any other shown nationally — school-age girls in football helmets, jerseys and full pads — tucking the ball and running, passing, blocking and … tackling,” Dinich wrote on ESPN.com.
RELATED: Judge: Utah Schools Don’t Need To Offer Girls’ Football
The ad will also be highlighted by the voice of Sam Gordon, who famously began playing football at nine years old. She played alongside boys her age and put up staggering numbers.
After rushing for 232 carries, 1,911 yards, and 25 touchdowns, Gordon’s father made a highlight reel of her plays. The video went viral on YouTube and had millions of views in its first week online.
Since then, she’s appeared on Good Morning America, NFL Network, and an NFL commercial. In 2015, Gordon and her father created the first all-girls tackle football league. She is now a student at Columbia.
“Utah is the only place where girls who love football can play football,” Gordon’s voiceover says in the commercial. “Be a part of history.”
Per Dinich, Gordon’s father, an attorney, paid for the ad amid his continued fight to have girls’ tackle football offered at every high school in Utah.
“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,” Brent Gordon 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.”
Girls' tackle football to be featured in Super Bowl 2023 ad @UtahGFL #aleagueofourown #girlsfootball https://t.co/9K9uuJNKa5
— Heather Dinich (@CFBHeather) February 11, 2023
“When my dad called me and told me that he’d gotten a slot for the Super Bowl commercial, I was just ecstatic,” Sam Gordon told ESPN. “I thought it was such a great idea. He has always been my biggest supporter, this league’s biggest supporter. So it’s incredible to see that he’s still fighting even when I’m no longer in the league, and it’s bigger than just us two and the Gordon family trying to let their daughter play. No, this is an entire community and entire gender, and my dad is still fighting even though I’m not there.”
Super Bowl LVII’s kickoff is slated for 4:30 p.m. (MDT) on FOX.
Kyle Ireland is a Locals in the NFL Insider for KSLSports.com and co-host of the Yards After College Podcast. Follow him on Twitter (@kyleireland) and Instagram (@kyleirelandksl).
