In her first year of high school, quarterback Madeleine Northern had to deal with big hits not just from her opponents, but her own teammates who tried to take her out.
“It took me a really long time to earn their respect because I am a girl,” Northern said to Prime Time Sports Talk. “My freshman year, my teammates were trying to injure me and they were threatening me.”
Teammates in one instance called Northern one night threatening to break her arm at next day’s practice.
It was constant. Northern was always on guard. This escalated even more as her and her teammates got older.
“I had to kind of play knowing that my own teammates were trying to hurt me so I never really knew when it was ever gonna happen.” Northern said. “When we got older, the boys started growing and they were really big, I was playing against people that were 300 pounds so I just got really uncomfortable with the size difference cause I stayed pretty small.”
Northern was motivated to try football in sixth grade when her classmates declared she wouldn’t fit on the field.
“I tried out for the team, not even because I wanted to play football it was really just to prove them wrong,” Northern said. “I ended up loving it.”
Northern’s first year was filled with challenges. This was her first time participating in an all-male sport. She wasn’t alone however as she had family alongside her.
“It was a lot of just getting used to the fact that my own teammates aren’t going to like me and a lot of people are going to doubt me,” Northern said. “But, it really helped because my cousin played on the same team as I did, so it was really easy and also because my uncle was the coach so I had family there with me.”
Her persistence drew the attention of USA Football, which decided to do an interview with the then 15-year-old quarterback. It was a first-time experience that made the teen ecstatic.
“At first when it came out, it was super exciting for me as I had never had this opportunity,” Northern said. “I was previously in a newspaper but never in a real interview.”
It was greeted warmly at its initial release, but soon enough, the ugly side of the internet reared its ugly head.
“At first everyone was loving it,” Northern said. “[But] I started reading the comments and there was a lot of people saying, ‘I can’t do this’ and, ‘It was wrong.'”
The statements from viewers in the comment section grew so bad that it has since been disabled.
Hecklers continue to question the validity of the video.
“People were just making fun of me for it,” Northern said. “They were like, ‘Oh how much did your Dad pay for that’ and were just trying to say that I didn’t deserve it and stuff, but I’m glad they left it up.
Though deleted, the comment section didn’t take away the impact it had already made among young girls. Northern started to receive messages from female athletes who felt reinvigorated and inspired by the interview.
“I had some girls reach out to me saying that, ‘This helped them do what they wanted to do’ whether it was football or not it just gave them that push that anything can happen really,” Northern said. “That helped me a lot actually because I didn’t think it was helping anybody considering the comments I was reading.”
Northern maintains that the comments themselves made her stronger — not just on the field, but off it.
“This really helped me realize that comments from people like that don’t even matter to me,” Northern said. “What they say won’t effect how I play whatsoever, I just need to better to prove them wrong and I went a lot farther than anyone thought I would.”
The Wisconsin native tried to play professionally in women’s league. However, it turned out to not be a good fit for her.
“I played for a professional women’s team up in Madison a little bit and it just didn’t work out for me,” Northern said. “I tried playing with women but it really just was too different for me, like the ways we played are really different.”
Everything from playing to practicing paled in comparison to her days playing in high school.
“I practiced with them and they were just walking, they didn’t really care what was going on,” Northern said. “They were just talking and I’m not really used to that and was like, ‘Let’s get this done, let’s go, come on,’ it just didn’t work out.
Northern is finishing up her freshman year at The University of Wisconsin-Rock County with the desire to be a personal trainer.
“As I get older, I’m starting to realize how much of an impact that I’ve had on little girls and stuff,” Northern said. “It makes me really want to look into that a little more.”
Although not playing in college, Northern thinks about the game and all the great things about it. However, she does see herself calling signals once again.
“I miss everything, I miss practicing, I miss throwing,” Northern said. “I miss playing as a team, I miss it all and I really do want to play, I just need to look for more woman’s teams out there.”
