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Could Carli Lloyd be the NFL’s first female kicker? Here’s why she’d crush it

Athletes September 4, 2019
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In a recent Q&A with NYPost, two-time World Cup champion Carli Lloyd expressed her interest in kicking in the NFL.

She explained that despite being a woman in an all-male sport, her soccer skills and overall athletic training are enough to qualify her as a kicker.

How serious is she? Here’s a video of Carli at a recent joint Eagles-Ravens practice nailing a 55-yard field goal like it’s nothing. Impressive stuff.

Why is this important?

Women often have to prove time and again that they are equal to men on a basic level. In the physical realm, it can be very difficult to do so because of the continued understanding of average strength differences between the biological sexes.

Anti-Equality advocates use these differences to justify wage gaps between the genders, and more specifically to justify paying women less.

Sports is a key as part of the conversation of gender wage discrimination. We’ve heard time and again that women just aren’t “made” for high-intensity sports, and they don’t really reach the levels of sports like men do and therefore deserve less money.

This isn’t new

Women in sports showing female strength time and again with challenges both announced and secret. Serena Williams won a championship while pregnant. Billie Jean King won against Bobby Riggs in Battle of the Sexes.

Kathrine Switzer entered the Boston marathon when those in charge still barred women from running because experts claimed that distance running was damaging to women’s mental and more importantly reproductive health.

Carli Lloyd and the rest of the US national women’s team have won several Olympic medals while the men’s team fails to even rank.

Changing the perspective one challenge at a time

It’s no surprise that effectively kicking in the NFL, an all-male league, would have a similar effect. And she’s got some support. Tom Brady weighed in saying,

“I think if you’re good enough to do it and teams wanted to explore that than everyone should have an opportunity.”

Giants kicker Aldrick Rosas also voiced his support for Lloyd. He said:

“I saw the video of her kicking the field goals and she looks good, really good. It is impressive to see her kick like that. I have been following her and she is a great soccer player. I can’t wait to see her continue her career in whatever path she chooses.”

Not only that but teams have actually approached the two-time Olympic gold medalist, two-time FIFA Player of the Year after her 55-yard field goal that went viral. Plenty of teams, like the Jets, are in dire need of a kicker. Carlie spoke to NFL.com and said:

“I’m not trying to be a running back or a quarterback, that would be an epic fail, but I do know that I can kick a ball very well and I pride myself in my technique.”

If Carli Lloyd got into the NFL she would join the list of female athletes disproving the ‘frailty of women’ myth and add to the mountain of straw that will hopefully one day break the camel’s back.

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