She is 9 year-old Sam Gordon, and she shreds defenses for a living.
Truly awesome. They call her Sweet Feet.
Not unlike a team of Bernanke's chasing the ghost of asset inflation.
Do not skip the ending where she delivers the hits. This is a powerful antidote for a week's worth of stress. If you haven't seen this yet, get ready to be blown away.
Interview below with Samantha from today's Good Morning America.
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It started as a way for an 8-year-old girl to keep up with her big brother.
Sam Gordon just wanted to run with the older kids. The coaches in the local tackle football league figured, hey, why not? Maybe they could turn it into a drill: Who can outrun Max's little sister?
They were shocked to find the answer: no one.
Sam Gordon, now 9, became one of the fastest kids this Salt Lake City area "Gremlins" league had ever seen. They put her in drills and she outran boys two years older. They allowed her into the "Sharks and Minnows" game and stared in awe at not only at her speed, but her ability to move like a tailback.
"She could cut and follow blocks like a college football player," says her coach, Chris Staib.
Staib hatched a plan: His team was drafting seventh out of nine. He wanted to pick the girl. So he started talking her down, suggesting she would get hurt. The other coaches bought it, and with his first selection he chose Sam Gordon.
"You dog!" they howled.
Staib just laughed. Sam ended up running for 25 touchdowns and 10 conversions (no PATs at this level) in her first season playing tackle football. She earned the nickname "Sweet Feet" – a modern-day Rudy Huxtable – and a breathtaking viral video in which she looks so fast that you have to wonder if it's real.
"Oh it's real," says Staib. "That's her. I was there for all of that."
It may be real, but is it appropriate? This is a 9-year-old girl playing against bigger, stronger boys. She even had a trainer who put her through agility drills and plyometrics. Gordon is not even 60 pounds, and there's a kid on her team who weighs more than 150. (His nickname: Tank.) In an era of concussions and frequent ACL tears, it's fair to ask: What are the adults thinking?
Sam's dad, Brent, admits his daughter had an adjustment issue at first. "She had a little bit of a struggle," he said Tuesday in a phone interview from his Idaho law office. "The team lost a couple of games. Since she was the primary ball carrier, she felt a lot of pressure to win. She felt blame for losing."
His solution was the video, telling Sam not to worry about the end result but rather each play. "Get me some highlights," he told her. He says it helped.
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ABC interviewed Sam and her father:
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A reminder of what can go wrong, very wrong:
Player is hit by LARGEST KID EVER - Pee Wee Football