Carli Lloyd, one of the best players in the history of U.S. women’s soccer showed up this week at a practice for the NFL Philadelphia Eagles and almost on a lark booted a 55-yard field goal.
The feat lit up the Twitterverse, made headlines and had a run through two full news cycles on ESPN. The tone of the reaction was almost entirely surprise, although anyone who follows the US Women’s National Team would hardly be shocked by Lloyd’s leg strength. In the 2015 World Cup final against Japan, she scored the third of her three goals from beyond midfield. (Watch the video: https://youtu.be/mBosyOJ3PIY)
But Lloyd’s practice kick, in a more serious vein, showed that the NFL may be moving closer to gender desegregation.
“Honestly, I don’t think it will be long before we see a woman break through this NFL barrier,” tweeted Gil Brandt, an NFL hall of famer and the Dallas Cowboys’ vice president of player personnel from 1960 to 1988. “I’d give her an honest tryout, if I were, say, the Bears.”
The Chicago Bears experience with kicker Cody Parkey in 2018 was a disaster, including the notorious “double-doink,” when a potential game-winner from 43 yards out was tipped at the line, then hit the left upright and the crossbar. The Bears lost that wild-card game 16-15 to the Eagles. The Bears released Parkey in the spring. This pre-season, they’ve looked at nine kickers — six rookies, three free agents.
Lloyd caught the eye of current NFL team managers, but was ambivalent about a career change.
“I’ve definitely got some inquiries, I’ve definitely got some people talking,” Lloyd told SI TV’s Planet Futbol TV. “Anything is possible but right now, I’m strictly a soccer player and we’ll see what the future holds.”
But are the rewards worth the risk?
As a rookie kicker, she would likely make the league minimum salary of $495,000. That would be a lateral move financially for Lloyd.
In 2017, she reportedly earned $400,000 after signing a three-month contract with Manchester City in the English Premiere League women’s division. After her EPL stint, she rejoined the Houston Dash in the National Women’s Soccer League, where the maximum salary was about $40,000. She was also on the roster of the USWNT for sixteen matches.
This year, playing for the national team in its run to the a second straight World Cup in France, Lloyd stands to make $260,000. (Of course, if the women received the same pay as the men’s national players, Lloyd’s compensation would have topped $1 million).
The cost to her reputation might be more dear.
To step up as the first woman to play in the NFL she would bring notoriety, but not necessarily in the same way as Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball. Maybe more in the way of Bill Veeck signing Eddy Gaedel to the Chicago White Sox.
It would follow her everywhere.
It would be in the first sentence of her obituary.
It would likely overshadow her accomplishments on the soccer pitch, where she has won two Olympic gold medals (and potentially a third in 2020 if she remains with the USWNT), two World Cups, the golden boot and the golden ball awards as the leading scorer and best player in the 2015 World Cup, and was named FIFA Player of the Year in 2015 and 2016.
At 37 years old, Lloyd has already established her superstar credentials. She has nothing left to prove. Risking her stellar credentials for a cameo in the NFL seems like the wrong choice.