Beast Mode being Beast Mode, Prime Time picking-off the Comeback Kid and an untouchable Barry Sanders putting defenders on skates — the NFL’s “100-Year Game” commercial seemingly had it all.

An ode to the all-time greatest, most-competitive NFL athletes who helped shape the game to what it is today, the two-minute advertisement that aired during the Super Bowl on Sunday night also paid tribute to significant female figures involved with the sport.

Former Blackfoot resident and girls tackle football activist Sam Gordon, 15, who now lives in Herriman, Utah, was one of three women included in the commercial. She was joined by ESPN’s Beth Mowins, a broadcaster who in 2017 became the first woman to do play-by-play of a nationally televised NFL game and Sarah Thomas, the first permanent female official in NFL history who this year became the first woman to officiate a playoff game.

“The message that the NFL told me they were trying to send with Sam’s role in the commercial is look at all these players who have been major contributors to the growth of football over the past 100 years and now look to the future of the sport,” said Sam’s father, Brent Gordon, who is an attorney with offices in Pocatello, Boise, Idaho Falls and Utah. “That message is shown with Sam passing the ball to Saquon Barkley, the rookie.”

Sam’s portion of the razzle-dazzle commercial comes with about 10 seconds left on the clock, just after Denver’s Von Miller catapults 2019 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Tony Gonzalez into the cake that Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch fell into, which turned the 100-year NFL gala into a golden football fumble scramble.

With Sam toting the rock, San Francisco’s Richard Sherman politely asks her for the ball, to which she replies, “You want this? Come and get it.” Sam then evades Sherman with a spin-move, a la the jukes in her viral 2012 highlight tape as a then 9-year-old girl playing in a boys’ league. Sam then pitches the ball to Saquon Barkley of the New York Giants.

“I was super excited to be included in something this big,” Sam said. “Walking onto set and seeing all the cameras, I knew this was a big deal. I was awestruck a little bit.”

Sam’s Super Bowl commercial appearance was about a year removed from her winning the NFL’s Game Changer Award in 2018, becoming the first female to grace the NFL Honors stage as a winner at just 14 years old. Sam’s message during her acceptance speech, which is as ever strong today, is clear — football isn’t just for the boys.

Sam said during her award acceptance speech, “I want to let you in on a little secret: girls love football.”

She added, “Before Title IX, some people thought that girls weren’t interested in playing sports but they were wrong. They were just as wrong as people who argued that women did not want to vote, to hold public office or to be lawyers or doctors. People who think girls don’t want to play football are wrong, too.”

Sam told the Journal on Tuesday that “football is America’s No. 1 sport and it just hasn’t been offered to girls at all. But here in Utah when we’ve offered it girls come out to play. Girls tackle football has the potential to reach into high schools, colleges and even a professional league.”

Female athletes participating in basketball, track and field, and several other sports at the high school, collegiate and Olympic levels aren’t forced to compete against the boys. Why should female football players be forced to do so? Sam asks.

“I’m like 5 feet tall and weigh 100 pounds. My goal isn’t to try and play in the NFL one day but rather to give girls the opportunity to play against each other in a fair way,” Sam said. “I want girls to get a chance to compete against each other and the NFL has been super great about shining a light on that.”

Though clips of Sam’s on-field performances have amassed millions of views, it’s her efforts off the field that has her father Brent gushing.

Sam and Brent played instrumental roles in launching the Utah Girls Tackle Football League, the first all-girls tackle football league in the nation, which has expanded from about 50 players in the inaugural 2015 season to more than 350 girls suiting-up last year. Brent says he expects the league to grow to over 400 players in 2019.

When the league first started, it was only offered to girls in fifth and sixth grades. Today, girls in grades six through 12 can participate on one of the 18 teams. Creating the UGTFL spurred the creation of similar all-girls leagues in Indiana, Georgia and Canada, the NFL announced ahead of its 2018 NFL Honors Award ceremony last year.

“Sam is serious about educating people that its time girls get the opportunity to play football,” Brent said. “I’m super proud of her. Every time that she has been in a position where she needed to hit a home run she has. During the NFL Honors Award ceremony last year she got up in front of hundreds of NFL executives, Hall of Famers and the biggest names in football and delivered a phenomenal speech about girls playing football and the equality of the sport. And all of that was straight from her.”

Achieving equality of the sport is so important to the Gordon family that Brent has filed a lawsuit against three Salt Lake County school districts claiming that they are out of Title IX compliance because of the lack of girls tackle football teams.

“Under Title IX the schools are supposed to provide equal opportunities for girls and boys to play sports but because football rosters are so big they are out of compliance,” Brent said. “They can be in compliance in two ways: by saying they are taking the necessary steps to improve opportunities for girls to play or by showing the large disparity in participation numbers between boys and girls is because girls are less interested in playing sports than boys.”

Brent added, “And they have yet to do either.”

Brent knows girls want to play tackle football because hundreds of them show up to the UGTFL every year to be fitted with helmets and shoulder pads. However, he is in the process of developing surveys and petitions to distribute to Utah residents as a means to acquire even more supporting evidence.

Though it seems the NFL agrees with Brent, considering the significance of Sam’s appearance in such a pivotal moment in the league’s 100-year celebration.

“I have to say thank you to the NFL,” Sam said. “The Super Bowl is one of the biggest events of the year. We are trying to bring as much attention as we can to girls tackle football and this was huge. The NFL is showing what might happen in the next 100 years, which is what our goal of expanding girls tackle football to the world is all about.”