© 2024 Blaze Media LLC. All rights reserved.
Sarah Fuller, brand new to college football team, blasts players at halftime. After one kickoff, she's named SEC special teams player of week.
Image source: YouTube screenshot

Sarah Fuller, brand new to college football team, blasts players at halftime. After one kickoff, she's named SEC special teams player of the week.

While woke observers couldn't get enough of the gender barrier-breaking story, others said the hoopla was over the top

One story utterly dominated the sports world Saturday: A goalie for the Vanderbilt University women's soccer team joined the school's football team as its placekicker after specialists on the squad were out with COVID-19.

Factually speaking, Sarah Fuller made history when she stepped on the field against Missouri to start the second half, becoming the first woman to play in a Power 5 football game. The Southeastern Conference called her kickoff "perfectly-executed" noting that it "sailed 30 yards and was downed at the Missouri 35-yard line."

Vanderbilt's Sarah Fuller Becomes First Woman To Play In Power Five Football Gameyoutu.be

But everything else surrounding her stint with the football team, according to a number of sports commentators, seemed just a tad over the top.

What are the details?

For starters, Fuller actually blasted her brand-new teammates in a halftime speech. Now, it's not uncommon for players to get vocal with each other in the locker room when the chips are down — but a player who just joined the team? And given that kickers' workloads are quite light, typically they're the last players who will rip into teammates covered in mud, blood, and sweat.

But Fuller told reporters that's just what she did.

"I just went in there, and I said exactly what I was thinking," Fuller recalled, according to ESPN's Courtney Cronin. "I was like, 'We need to be cheering each other on. This is how you win games. This is how you get better is by calling each other out for stuff, and I'm going to call you guys out. We need to be supporting one another.'"

Fuller added that she "was a little pissed off at how quiet everybody was on the sideline. We made a first down, and I was the only one cheering, and I was like, 'What the heck? What's going on?' And I tried to get them pumped up."

And believe it or not, Fuller said after her speech she "had coaches come up to me and say, 'I've been wanting to say that for awhile now.'" Vanderbilt lost the game 41-0.

Oh, and after her single kickoff, Fuller was named the SEC's co-special teams player of the week.

Fuller's effort reportedly was compared to Jackie Robinson

And a number of folks just couldn't get enough of the growing legend surrounding Fuller.

Uber-woke NBA superstar LeBron James praised Fuller on Instagram. ESPN's Linda Cohn gushed on camera, calling Fuller a "rock star" during a recent interview.

Vanderbilt kicker Sarah Fuller on becoming the first woman to play in Power 5 game | SportsCenteryoutu.be

Alex Scarborough, also with ESPN, penned a feature article totaling more than 2,000 words on Fuller. Scarborough also talked to Katie Hnida and April Goss, who watched Saturday's game on a Zoom video conference. In 2002, Hnida became the first woman to play football at the FBS level at New Mexico, and 10 years later, Goss became the second woman when she played at Kent State.

Nashville-based radio commentator Chad Withrow said that a fellow local host likened Fuller's efforts to Jackie Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier.

"I'm thinking, 'Are you kidding me?'" Withrow told Outkick's Clay Travis on Monday. "I mean the insanity of some of this drives me crazy."

Broadcasters Compare Sarah Fuller To Greats Like JACKIE ROBINSON- Clay And Chad Are NOT Ok With It!youtu.be

Travis — a Vanderbilt alum — has been following the story closely and suggested that the whole thing may have been a publicity stunt pulled off by head coach Derek Mason to save his job. (If so, it apparently didn't work; Mason was fired the day after Fuller's game, having tallied an 0-8 season.)

Anything else?

Fuller is well aware of the negativity pointed at her.

"I've been trying not to look at the comments, but it's hard not to see them sometimes when they're talking crap about you, and I'm just like, at this point, what are you doing?" she told ESPN in a separate story. "I am a D-I soccer player, I go to Vanderbilt University, I am going to get my degree from here, I've done amazing things I've set out to do, and so they can talk crap all they want. This is something I believe I've earned, and I was at the right place at the right time, so yeah, I'll take on the hate."

Fuller also said she wants to keep playing for Vanderbilt's football team, even if other specialists return to the squad. She's the only one kicker listed on the two-deep chart for this weekend's game at No. 11 Georgia.

Want to leave a tip?

We answer to you. Help keep our content free of advertisers and big tech censorship by leaving a tip today.
Want to join the conversation?
Already a subscriber?