Griffith, who hails from Lemont, joined CMSA and its flag football league a couple years back when she moved from the suburbs to the city. As someone who played volleyball and soccer her whole life, Griffith was eager to find a new path into organized sports postgrad. Through word of mouth, she discovered CMSA is the largest LGBTQ+ sports organization in the Midwest and immediately joined. What stood out to Griffith was CMSA’s flag football league and the opportunity to play a sport she longed to play as a child.
As someone who was born and raised in Illinois, Griffith grew up a diehard Bears and football fan. She remembers attending training camp with her sisters and babysitter for a “girls day” in Bourbonnais, going to games at Soldier Field with her family and watching Devin Hester’s kickoff return for a touchdown in Super Bowl XLI. Those moments caused her fandom of both the Bears and football to become “second nature,” but she felt being an active participant in the game was never attainable.
“That kickoff, that return, I can still picture it to this day — watching with my dad and watching with our family and just being like, ‘holy crap. what is this,'” Griffith said. “Just watching his returns and how quick and twitchy and fast he was instantly made my view of football change. I immediately wanted to get involved with it, but since I was little, I learned, ‘oh, women can’t really play.'”
In discovering CMSA, Griffith found more than just an outlet for her competitive nature and passion for sports. She found a new community of friends and teammates as well as confidence in who she is and what she enjoys. The flag football league in particular has allowed Griffith to go back to her roots and create new experiences with the sport she always loved.
“It definitely feels like living out a childhood dream,” Griffith said. “And being part of Pride Month, it’s nice to feel seen. Being around other women and people in the community who want to play football and who had that same experience of ‘if only’ — if only there was a team or if only we could somehow play.
“This has really been something that’ll stick with me for the rest of my life. It feels like one of those moments where it is life-changing —where you’re like, ‘wow, I know it’s not just me. I know some other people actually feel seen and they feel like they’re actually involved in the conversation now, or they actually get to have their foot in the…
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