'Stop this nonsense': social media erupts after another female football player makes terrible opening kick

Another female football player took the field in a college football game over the weekend.

Leilani Armenta, a soccer player at Jackson State University (JSU) in Mississippi, became the first player to play a game for an historically-black college or university (HBCU) at the Division I level after she appeared in JSU’s game against Bethune-Cookman on September 23. Armenta had joined the team the week before due to injuries on the JSU roster.

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Armenta delivered the opening kickoff. From JSU’s 35-yard line, the ball arced high in the air, taking a single bounce before a Bethune-Cookman player fell on it at the team’s 41-yard line- less than 25 yards. 

The first female college football player in HBCU history.

Wow. What a boot.
pic.twitter.com/PsAbiz6bi2

— Jon Root (@JonnyRoot_) September 25, 2023

Users on X (formerly Twitter) criticized the kick itself, and also pointed out the connections between Armenta playing football and men playing women’s sports.

”ESPN celebrates the first female kicker in an HBCU game...,” Cabot Phillips of The Daily Wire wrote. “No matter how bad you expected the kick to be, I promise you it’s even worse.”

ESPN celebrates the first female kicker in an HBCU game...

No matter how bad you expected the kick to be, I promise you it’s even worse https://t.co/Sumga5fGEr

— Cabot Phillips (@cabot_phillips) September 25, 2023

”Never forget that women ruined men’s sports first,” Kingsley Cortes of the Center for Renewing America posted.

”Stop this nonsense,” Texas radio host Mark Davis posted. “We protect women’s sports because of differences between men and women. Every player on a football team is a proper potential target for a leveling block or tackle (even kickers if there’s a long return). No man can regard a woman in this way. Enough.”

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”If you support this then don’t get mad when men start playing women’s sports,” user @marlee_hatcher wrote.

Armenta was not called on to kick extra points or field goals, despite posting a video to her Twitter account of her kicking them in practice the week before. 

Thank you 🙏 JSU fans, coaches and teammates for all of the love and support! This was one of my first kicks last week, 10 months post ACL surgery. I have played for 4 years with my senior season being played on a torn ACL. Grateful and Thankful! ❤️🐯 pic.twitter.com/uEuwNG9l6E

— Leilani Armenta 🌺 (@LeilaniArmenta) September 24, 2023

Even students who support diversity quotas in hiring and college admissions do not feel the same way about college sports teams, as Campus Reform revealed in a 2021 video.

“It doesn’t make much sense...it should be based on skill,” one student told Campus Reform.

Campus Reform has also reported extensively on the topic of biological men competing in women’s sports.

On August 9, Campus Reform reported the launch of the Riley Gaines Center at the Leadership Institute. The Center is named after Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer who has spoken publicly about competing against Lia Thomas, a biological male swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania.  

Armenta was not the only female player who took the field on September 23. Shortly before Jackson State took the field, Shaw University kicker India Pulphus became the first female to play in an HBCU game. Also on Saturday, Shenandoah University safety Haley Van Voorhis became the first female non-kicker to play in an NCAA game.

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In 2020, Sarah Fuller became the first woman to play in a Power Five conference game, when she kicked for the Vanderbilt Commodores against the Missouri Tigers.

Campus Reform reached out to Jackson State University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.