At the Dove ’45 Yard Line’ event held prior to the Super Bowl, coaches and top athletes spoke about the significant changes that the sport has seen in recent years.
For the first time in a long time, two of the greatest athletes in history reminisced a few miles west of the Las Vegas Strip, home of Super Bowl LVIII celebrations.
Steve Young has had the experience of winning the Super Bowl, while Venus Williams has won several tennis championships during her career. Williams had her arms crossed on this chilly day while sporting a football shirt with the number 45. She reminded Young, the quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, of their first meeting thirty years before.
“I was a huge fan of Steve Young,” Venus Williams told before coaching a girls flag football team against Young’s team. I remember first meeting him when I was a teenager. I was excited beyond belief.
But as they shared experiences, Williams’s competitive spirit surfaced, helping her to get to the top of the world rankings and win seven Grand Slam singles titles.
Remembering, Venus Williams said, “I also told him my team is winning.” “Big fan, you’re losing today. The atmosphere is one of competition.
Venus Williams and Steve Young got to know one another two days before the Kansas City Chiefs defeated Young’s former team at Durango High School in the Super Bowl.
Williams is not a football expert, but she thought the Dove-hosted “45 Yard Line” event was especially important since it reminded girls that they can succeed in any activity and encouraged them to be confident in their bodies. According to Dove’s self-esteem initiative, 45% of young girls globally stop doing sports before the age of 14, with low body confidence being the primary reason.
According to Venus Williams, “You would never think the number would be that high, but it is.” And we have to change it in order to illuminate it, which is why we are here today.
Venus Williams took it upon herself to regularly tell her girls flag football squad that they can thrive in any sport as long as they play, even if she made light of the idea that she could only offer tennis instruction to them.
It’s great for Venus Williams to be able to experiment with flag football. I think a lot of females probably thought they wouldn’t be able to play football, but look at us now—ladies are playing football, and they’re doing really good at it. I thus think I have a fantastic opportunity to be affected by these young women.
“There are no limitations on what girls may do, and playing sports is not one of them. I think the most important thing to remember from this is that we can succeed.
Young, an assistant coach at Atherton, California’s Menlo School, has firsthand experience with the enormous number of female flag football players. His two daughters, Summer and Laila, asked him six months ago if he could help at the high school, where female flag football was just starting to get official varsity status in California.
Young says it’s been illuminating. “I came upon something that eventually made me feel quite emotional. It’s like traveling back in time to when my love for the game first blossomed and I used to take it for granted. It was visceral, I told my wife Barbara, to witness women playing flag football. It’s evident to you. I love that. It wasn’t enough, but if that was all there was to it, then it was. Following that, they started to learn more about the game, and as a result, they grew to love it even more, ultimately making it their favorite sport.
The girls at Menlo School were bewildered because they hadn’t been taught about the sport’s safety considerations when their first flag football game ended in a 2-0 loss. Menlo School went on to win every game after the instructional experience.
Young, a former 49ers player, stated he regularly found himself resorting to the school’s head coach, John Paye, despite the ladies’ lack of playing experience. Paye said he was impressed by the children.
The experience, according to Young, was “just seeing all the details, and how they saw the game, once they learned it and got it.” “In my opinion, girls flag football will take the world by storm, and the Olympics will set the precedent.” Every squad we played, the coach said, “We expected half of the girls that came out.” Here, there are two or three teams.
“Flag football is meant for you, ladies. They were absorbed in football once they learned it was a choreography.
Olympic gold champion Williams (2000) voiced his joy over women’s flag football eligibility for the first-ever Los Angeles Games in 2028.
Venus Williams says, “I want all kinds of girls to play all kinds of sports at the highest levels.”
