The fuss has died down, but the fact remains -- UNM football head coach Rocky Long made the decision to let third-string kicker Katie Hnida kick an extra point during the Las Vegas Bowl.
That decision made Hnida the first woman to play in a Division I-A football game. The downside is that she missed the kick when Long put her in for the extra point after the Lobos' first touchdown early in the first quarter of the game.
This column isn't about why Long made the decision he did, though he's staunchly defended it since it happened. After the game, Long stated that he had made the decision to kick the first extra point before the actual game.
This column isn't about the what-ifs that fans and media have passed around, such as what if the game had come down to that one point? What if Long's decision screwed up the game's momentum and sent the Lobos tumbling into defeat?
No, this column is simply the expression of one very satisfied female athlete -- me. Hnida said after the game that she had a "very long road to get here." She's right. Most people can not even conceive of the difficulties that women athletes go through each day, even in this so-called age of "equality." And for a woman to make a college football team must have been even more difficult.
I think I could speak for many female athletes when I say that I could care less about the media hype and the speculation that Long did it merely to draw attention away from the Lobos' 27-13 loss to UCLA. I could care less that an Albuquerque Tribune poll asking whether Long putting Hnida in to kick the extra point was a good decision or not and a huge majority said that it was a terrible idea.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
I could care less because I was there, in Las Vegas, watching the first woman to play in a Division I-A football game and something inside me screamed, "Hell, yeah!" Because, my friends, the revolution for women's athletics is not over.
I argued with the guys on the baseball team that softball was a weaker sport when I played at Albuquerque High School. I barely saw a highlight of the women's softball and soccer teams during the 1996 Olympics when both teams took the gold. How many times have I heard men say that women can never compete with men?
I've watched football since I was born (no joke), since it happened to be the one thing my family could do together without killing each other. Every Sunday we would suspend our hate for each other and watch the Pittsburgh Steelers play. And I finally got to see the first woman play in a Division I-A football game.
This is a step in a direction that will be fought against with tooth and nail, from both the men and the women. Hnida will be caught in the middle of it, but if she's strong enough, then she can keep making us female athletes proud.
