Men are typically stronger than women: true. This should affect women’s opportunities: false. And what better way to prove it than on the football field against 11-year-old Caroline Pla. But as of her second season on the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Catholic Youth Organization’s football team, she is being told it will be her last. The church says it’s a safety issue, that the decision is justified because the CYO handbook reserves single-sex contact sports for males. Well, apparently that only applies when a female brings some competition into a male-dominated sport.

In a country that publicizes athletics left and right and boasts the accomplishments of both male and female athletes, I would think Pla wouldn’t have a problem. Especially since the implementation of Title IX in 1972, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities, in this case football. This is the same law that opened up athletic and academic opportunities for female athletes at the University.

But here’s the catch: the law only applies if the program or activity receives federal financial assistance. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia is a participant in the federal government’s National School Lunch Program. Pla is legally entitled to play.

In a country that has recently allowed women to serve in direct combat, I would think that women would be given a little more credit for their abilities. Women enlisting in the military do so voluntarily and with conscious acceptance of the risks and conditions. The case is no different for Pla, who deliberately chose to play on the CYO football team. Her parents signed off on both concussion and sudden cardiac arrest waivers and paid registration fees, and Pla explicitly indicated her gender on forms — the exact same process completed by her male teammates. 

Fact is, this girl is competing on the same playing field and enduring the same bruises and scratches as her male teammates — and doing so successfully. Frankly, I think this 11-year-old has the archdiocese stumped. She isn’t seeking something like priesthood that the Roman Catholic Church explicitly prohibits, just a spot on the team. She’s testing the boundaries of women’s abilities and participation in the Roman Catholic Church — through athletics. 

Pla is very much fighting for something beyond the ranges of the football field — equal opportunity. This is more than saying some sports are too dangerous for women. It’s implying that somehow, a woman’s agility or talent can’t make up for her lack of physical strength. That there’s minimal consideration of safety when a bunch of boys run out on the field tackling each other with full force, but when a girl is involved the safety concerns increase five times over. That when girls try to test the gender barriers set by men, we doubt their efficacy and are skeptical about their well-being.

When the sport involves grace and lack of apparent harm, we have no problem with women playing sports. But as soon as it involves contact, aggressiveness and confrontation — so-called “unfeminine” attributes — the excuses and concerns pour in.  

And let me remind you that we aren’t talking about the NFL; we’re talking about an 11-year-old’s church-sponsored football team. We’re talking about an 11-year-old girl that is nearly the same physical size as her teammates, if not bigger. Just let the girl play. If safety was really the problem, the archdiocese wouldn’t be promoting youth football, period. And if rules were really the problem, the archdiocese wouldn’t have let Pla participate on the team her first season.

If the archdiocese wants to make a progressive and egalitarian decision, it’ll let Pla play. I get it; competition comes with risks. Some that may disproportionately affect a girl as compared to a boy. But Pla is just a young girl looking to continue a sport she fell in love with at age 3. A sport with apparent risks that she has confronted and tackled before. And although competition is important, so is cooperation. So are the valuable lessons that can be learned by young boys who think girls can’t take up the same tasks as them or, at the bare minimum, think that girls have cooties.

To many of you, it’s just a game. To Pla, it’s her passion. And to others, it’s a real touchdown for equality.

Adam is a junior in ACES. He can be reached at [email protected].