Antoinette "Toni" Harris (born July 29, 1996) is an American former

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

player who was a

safety Safety is the state of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings The word 'safety' entered the English language in the 1 ...

for

Central Methodist University Central Methodist University (formerly known as Central Methodist College and also known as Central College or CMU) is a private university in Fayette, Missouri. CMU is accredited to offer master's, bachelors, and associate degrees. The school ...

in the

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for higher education, colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic schola ...

(NAIA). She is the first woman to receive a full college football scholarship as a non-specialist, and the second woman to ever play football on scholarship.

Early life and family

Antoinette Harris was born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. She played football for her high school,

Redford Union High School Redford Union High School (RUHS) is a secondary school in Redford, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The school is affiliated with the Redford Union School District and serves grades 9-12. History Redford Union High School's first graduating ...

, in

Redford, Michigan Redford Township (commonly known simply as Redford) is a charter township in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring suburb of Detroit, Redford borders Detroit to the east, roughly northwest of downtown Detroit. As of the 2 ...

College

Two years after graduating high school, Harris moved to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

to play

free safety Safety (S), historically known as a safetyman, is a position in gridiron football on the American football positions#Defense, defense. The safeties are defensive backs who line up ten to fifteen yards from the line of scrimmage. There are two var ...

East Los Angeles College East Los Angeles College (ELAC) is a public community college in Monterey Park, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. It is part of the California Community Colleges System and the Los Angeles Community College District. With fourteen communiti ...

, where she played for two years (2018–19) under the direction of Head Coach Bobby Godinez. She became the first woman to ever play for East Los Angeles College. She received six offers to play football at four-year universities. Harris graduated with honors from

with a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice. Her athletic eligibility remains available due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. She has intended to pursue a Master’s of Science in Criminal Justice at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

. She has not decided how she will use eligibility, but she plans to continue playing football.

In media

In 2019, she was featured in a

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

commercial for the

Toyota RAV4 The is a compact crossover SUV produced by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota. It is known for starting the wave of compact crossovers. The RAV4 is one of the best-selling SUVs of all time. By February 2020, a total of 10 million RAV4 ...

References

External links

Toni Harris, featured in Super Bowl ad, aspires to be 1st female NFL player
(CBS Mornings on YouTube) {{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Toni 1996 births Living people Players of American football from Detroit Female players of American football 21st-century American sportswomen Bethany College (Kansas) alumni East Los Angeles College alumni Players of American football from Los Angeles 21st-century African-American sportswomen People from Redford, Michigan Players of American football from Wayne County, Michigan

Early life and family

College

In media

See also

References

External links