There is no denying that Sarah Fuller made history for women in football last Saturday. There is also no question that the media reaction has been a little excessive.
The story itself is definitely noteworthy. Vanderbilt saw its starting kicker opt out of the season, and the team has been riddled with depth chart issues due to coronavirus protocols and quarantines. With no suitable kickers on their roster, the Commodores made the decision to try out women’s soccer goalkeeper Sarah Fuller, who was handed kicking duties for the team’s game last week.
It is, indeed, historic. Fuller is the first woman to play college football for a Power Five conference. When she took the field on Saturday against Missouri, it was the highest level of football a woman had ever played. History had been made.
That history-making moment was also brief. Fuller played exactly one play: a squib kick to start the second half. Vanderbilt was shut out 41-0, dropping to 0-8 on the season. Head coach Derek Mason was fired the next day. But sports media have made their commitment to the story, and it has become a little ridiculous.
CBS Sports talked about how many social media followers she gained. Fuller’s story was plastered all over ESPN’s website and airwaves. Articles were written about how “emotional” it was to see her kick, or how people were responding to social media trolls. Fuller was inexplicably named the SEC’s co-special teams player of the week.
You may recall that a similar narrative overload took place in 2014, when Michael Sam became the first openly gay player in the NFL. Sam was drafted in the final round of the NFL draft and was cut before the season started, but that didn’t stop the media from flooding viewers and readers with coverage of Sam, including an ESPN report on his showering habits.
Fuller made history, but the glorification of her one “perfectly executed” kickoff is silly. The SEC giving her player of the week honors only serves to water down her achievement. And, much like with the Sam story, the media is drowning consumers with an inordinate focus on a single milestone.
Fuller is poised to kick again for Vanderbilt this weekend. She probably won’t be any busier than last week: If they couldn’t score on Missouri, the chances look slim against the eighth-ranked Georgia Bulldogs. Sports media figures should keep this in some perspective before trying to run this story into the ground for a second straight week.
