Samantha Gordon
American football and soccer player

Samantha Gordon (born February 21, 2003) is an American football running back for the Salt Lake Wildcats of the Women's Football Alliance. A native of Salt Lake City, she earned fame as a youth when YouTube videos of her skills were uploaded by her father; these videos went viral and led to her making several media appearances.
Achievements and viral popularity
In 2012, at the age of 9 while regularly playing against all-male teams (competing with some players who were up to twice her weight), Gordon compiled 25 touchdowns and 10 extra point conversions on 232 carries for 1,911 rushing yards in a single season, averaging 8.2 yards per carry. In addition, Gordon recorded 65 tackles for the season while playing defense. 2012 was her first year playing organized football.
On November 6, 2012, Gordon's father uploaded a highlight video to YouTube that by Thursday of that week had generated nearly 5 million views. His recording of her football prowess garnered attention from various news outlets, as well as the National Football League.
Media and sporting appearances
Gordon has appeared on Good Morning America, tackled Marshall Faulk on the set of the NFL Network, huddled up with the San Francisco 49ers at practice, and gained the attention and praise of U.S. soccer stars Abby Wambach and Mia Hamm. 49ers running back LaMichael James and former NFL player, Super Bowl MVP, and Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard both jokingly stated that she should win the Heisman Trophy. She was featured on a Wheaties cereal box, the company stating that she was chosen because she is an inspiration to young girls.
“Samantha Gordon” enters the record as american football and soccer player. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Samantha, Gordon and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7408660. VIAF identifies the subject as 302157604. The Library of Congress control number is n2013030392. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2003 and 2012.
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This entry incorporates text from “Samantha Gordon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.