Here’s what you need to know about the girl in the NFL 100 Super Bowl commercial

In the aftermath of the Super Bowl, everyone’s talking about the game, Maroon 5’s halftime performance and, of course, the commercials. One spot that stood out was the NFL’s “The 100-Year Game,” which featured a who’s who of football legends, including Joe Montana, Odell Beckham Jr., Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Jim Brown among others.

In addition to these stars, the commercial also had cameos from a few young people on the rise in the sport. One such example is Sam Gordon, a 15-year-old female football player who captured the nation’s attention in 2012 when she joined her all-boys tackle football league.

In 2015, she and her dad also launched the Utah Girls Tackle Football League, the first of its kind, which led to similar all-girls leagues in Indiana, Georgia and Canada. Gordon was the recipient of the NFL’s first Game Changer Award in 2018 for her trailblazing accomplishments.

Check out the spot in the clip below:

The commercial opens on these football greats together at a black-tie gala celebrating the NFL’s upcoming 100th season. When Oakland Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch knocks a golden football off the top of a towering cake, chaos ensues. When they see the ball, the players (obviously) can’t resist grabbing it and beginning an impromptu game. Gordon is the only female player featured in the spot.

When San Francisco 49ers player Richard Sherman asks Gordon for the ball, she quips, “You want this? Come and get it.” She then takes off and passes the ball to New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley.

“I was going to a middle school to give a speech about working hard and I asked the question ‘How many girls here would like to play tackle football?’ And it seemed like almost every hand in the room went up,” Gordon said in a video from the NFL that tells her story in more detail. “There’s this many girls at this one middle school, how many are there in Utah? In the entire nation? And the world? And next spring, we had a league up and growing.”

You can watch the full video, in which Gordon shares more of her story, in the video below posted to YouTube:

Gordon also tweeted of her excitement over being featured in the Super Bowl commercial, thanking the NFL for including her in the ad:

Congratulations to Gordon and best of luck to her on all of her future endeavors!