A First for Sarah Fuller, but That Wasn’t the Last of It

They were touted as having broken glass ceilings, yet the scrutiny is sometimes withering.

Before scoring in a game last weekend, Fuller on Nov. 28 executed a squib kick to begin the second half of a 41-0 loss to Missouri. The game was notable because of Fuller’s presence, but the kick elicited a flood of negative responses on social media. A squib kick is not majestic, nor does it have a high arc; it is usually a short line drive that bounces around before a member of the receiving team can field it.

“If you had a male kicker from like, the men’s soccer team, brought in, and the coach asked him to kick it, there wouldn’t have been a controversy,” said Julie Harshbarger, who has kicked for several professional indoor football teams. “The people who don’t know what a squib kick is wouldn’t even care.”

Fuller said: “There’s always the hate comments, or whatever, but I was surprised at how much controversy it drew. I was like, I was supposed to kick it right there; I don’t know what the issue is. I think I did a great job.”

Fuller’s proximity to men, to some minds, meant she was responsible for representing an entire gender.

“It felt like she had to kick it out of the end zone to show she was the absolute best,” said Goss, who added that she felt pressure to be perfect while playing against men a half-decade before Fuller.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/17/sports/ncaafootball/sarah-fuller-women-firsts.html