A Girl's Dream

It was April 28, 1998, and Alexandra Jordan was born to Thomas Jordan and Katherine Wells. Thomas was an All-American Quarterback for the University of Mississippi, and Katherine just started law school student recently graduating from the University of Colorado with a bachelor's degree when Alexandra was born. They weren't sure how they would raise a child while in college, but they were bound and determined to make it work.

Alexandra always enjoyed being at the games, even when she was a baby. Her dad was a late-round draft pick in the NAFL and bounced around the league for a few years, mainly as a backup. Alexandra never missed a game of her dad's.

Her mother became a lawyer and worked up to owning her law firm. Katherine held down the family home base in Oxford, MS, and went to Thomas's games on the weekends.

The first spark of Alexandra's love of football came when her dad was with the New York Titans. Alexandra was allowed to go with her dad to practice when she was four years old. While playing with the other players' kids, Alexandra being the only girl playing football, she was getting picked on by the boys. They wouldn't let Alexandra play quarterback as they were worried that she'd throw like a girl and miss throws to receivers, but Alexandra was bound and determined to play with the boys.

Alexandra was one of the younger kids playing, but you couldn't tell as she was four; she was going hard-hitting and knocking down kids that were 12 years old. Her aggression and persistence caught the eye of a superstar player for the Titans, the one the only Mike Jones. Mike Jones came over to Alexandra during one of his breaks and kneeled to talk to the four-year-old, saying: " You like hitting the boys, don't you? Do you want to learn a few things to better tackle the boys? " Alexandra excitedly nodded yes to Mike Jones. Mike Jones chuckles and says, " Ok, so you want to make sure you hit your opponent between their shoulders and knees. You want to hit them with your shoulder into their gut and wrap your arms around their waist while keeping your eyes on your opponent. You never want to put your head down when tackling, and you need to see where you're going, or you can hurt your neck. "

Mike Jones spends about 10 minutes teaching 4-year-old Alexandra how to tackle and be a linebacker before he gets called back onto the field again. After practice, Mike Jones tells her dad that no matter what Alexandra wants to do in life that he always needs to encourage her to chase her dreams. Alexandra had that go-get-them instinct and passion for going after what she wanted. If football turns out not to be a phase, her dad needs to help her fight to be a football player, and he needs to be in Alexandra's corner.

After that day, Alexandra no longer wanted to be a quarterback like her dad, but she wanted to be a linebacker. She would continue to use and practice what Mike Jones taught her that day. It was a couple of years later that Alexandra had to deal with tragedy; when Alexandra was about six and a half years old when a drunk driver hit her mom's car while she was driving home from work and died. Her dad was visibly shaken by the accident, and he took a couple of years off of football to raise Alexandra and her 2-year-old brother Rodney.

Almost a year after her mom died, her dad met a woman named Stephanie Howard with two little boys of her own around Alexandra and her brother's age at the grocery store. Thomas and Stephanie would get married about a year later and have a couple of boys of their own. Thomas would go back to playing in the NAFL for a few more years; Alexandra would only get to go to her dad's games with the rest of the family, but not to any practices, as Stephanie was against her going because she claimed that Alexandra should be playing house and with dolls. Alexandra and Stephanie would constantly fight as Alexandra would want to play football with the boys, and Stephanie wanted her to be in dresses and play with the girls while learning how to be a proper lady.

The only time Alexandra got to play football was when her dad was home playing with the boys, and he would only include her so she wouldn't feel left out as she was the only girl. She would still outshine her brother and her "stepbrothers." If she hit her stepbrothers too hard, Stephanie would yell at her and pull her into the house to get cleaned up for her etiquette lesson. The only thing that Stephanie wanted Alexandra to do that she didn't fight Stephanie in was doing ballet. Alexandra remembered her dad telling her about a legendary Pittsburgh wide receiver doing ballet from when he was four years old till his senior year of school.

So from when Alexandra was seven years old till she graduated from high school, Alexandra did ballet. Alexandra wasn't allowed to play organized football until high school, as Stephanie wouldn't allow Alexandra to play organized sports with boys because it didn't fit for a proper lady. Thomas never helped Alexandra pursue her dream after her mother died. Things would've been better for Alexandra had her mom still been alive as not only was Katherine a proper lady, but she always believed that if you had a passion for something, you should do it and give 110% into it. She had a no-quit, no-excuse attitude that Alexandra inherited. Now, Thomas didn't mind that Alexandra was into football and wanted to play professionally; he just believed that women ran the house and the kids. Thomas would always say to everyone It's her house; I am lucky to live here.

Stephanie ran the house, set up the rules, and raised the kids as she saw fit. Thomas would work and come home to be Stephanie's backup. As Alexandra grew up, she fought with Stephanie over how Alexandra looked. She couldn't help; she would grow to be six feet tall, but Stephanie would get on her about weight, how she was too big and fat, how she needed to quit eating so much, or she needed to eat healthily.

Alexandra had a pretty balanced diet, she could eat a little healthier, and she was a very active child, but she just loved food. She got her love of food from both of her parents, who always seemed to have a picture of them having food. Stephanie could not accept Alexandra for the way she was; Stephanie had this idea in her head of how she wanted Alexandra to be as she never had a daughter of her own and was stuck with five boys. Stephanie wanted Alexandra to be a proper petite lady with outstanding etiquette who always wore dresses and wanted her to be an equestrian show rider. Still, as Alexandra grew taller than expected, Stephanie changed her mind about Alexandra being an actress or model due to her height. The boys, unfortunately, mistreated Alexandra in different ways. She was either too tall, too fat, too masculine, or too friendly, or the boys wanted to be short kings climbing a giantess, wanted to do the so-called heifer challenge.

The heifer challenge is where boys will make bets with each other on who can sleep with the heaviest girl, a very despicable thing to do. No one ever tried nor wanted to get to know Alexandra and date her. She had a few friends over the years, but none stuck around for various reasons. Some just used her as their fat friend to look better to guys, and some had her around to buy food, tickets to events, etc.

Stephanie tried to get Alexandra into the High Society Girls Association; not only did Alexandra not try to belong with the other girls, but the other girls looked down on her, not that Alexandra even cared. She forced herself out of the High Society Girls Association and Stephanie's plan pretty quickly. Alexandra was only allowed to join the high school football team because her dad was the head coach of her high school's football team, and he wanted to coach his kid's teams. Stephanie would make sure that Alexandra played little as possible, as her dad would only put her in to play when they lost because the opposing team wouldn't want to tackle her.

Alexandra got to play Running back and linebacker, as that was her deal with her dad if he made her play running back. Alexandra didn't get to play much in her freshman year, and she played a decent amount in her sophomore year. Alexandra played a lot in her Junior and Senior years, where she was an all-state Running Back and Linebacker in both years. She led the team to a state championship in her Senior year and broke nine school records in the process.

It was enough to get several division one scholarships. Still, most importantly, Alexandra received the only offer that made her world, the University of Mississippi, a full ride to play football for Ole Miss. Her dad was so proud of her for picking his alma mater and disappointed in his stepson for going to Mississippi State, but that's what happens when you marry an in-state rival fan. Alexandra was redshirted in her freshman year, and she understood why to maximize her playing time as there were four seniors at linebacker in her freshman. Alexandra took advantage of being redshirted; she studied the playbook, rigorously watched game film, and practiced harder than anyone else on the team.

The coaches noticed Alexandra's effort during her redshirt year and named her a starter in her freshman redshirt year. Alexandra kept up refining her craft and ended up having a great year as a linebacker, and she was named All-SEC. Alexandra was hyped for her sophomore year, and she was looking to be an All-American. Things were looking up finally, and Ole Miss had championship aspirations. Alexandra had a fantastic year, and she was a nightmare for opposing offenses. She was heading into the biggest game of the year, the Egg Bowl, the rivalry game versus Mississippi State.

The week before the big game, Alexandra's stepbrother, Wilfred, was texting her talking up a big game about how he was going to run all over her, how she wasn't anything, and how she only got into Ole Miss because of who her daddy is. Alexandra never replied to him, and she just used it as fuel for the game. It was game day, and it was a defensive game. Alexandra had a great game. It seemed like Alexandra was everywhere; it seemed whatever the offense threw at the defense, Alexandra was shutting it down. Ole Miss kicked a field goal and was up 3-0 heading into the 4th quarter.

When Mississippi State got the ball back, Wilfred made a decent three-yard run on the weak side. Wilfred gets up after running the ball and starts jawing his mouth off the trash, talking to Alexandra: " All right, that's how you do it. I'm going to show everyone why girls can't play football. I'll show your dad that he's proud of the wrong kid, 13. I'm going to put you in your place, Bitch. "

Alexandra fired back: " You noticed that you ran on the opposite side of me. You've always been too scared to run at me, and I put your ass on the ground every time. Please don't assume that it's my fault you got daddy issues. I dare you to run at me. Bring it, punk. "

That pissed off Wilfred, and he made sure they would run a play that he'd run the ball toward Alexandra. Mississippi State hiked the ball and pitched it to Wilfred, running on the strong side. Alexandra read the play perfectly and ran toward Wilfred, gearing up for a big hit. Wilfred knows it's now or never to show up his stepsister in front of a national audience and gears up to truck Alexandra. Alexandra aims for Wilfred's sternum like Mike Jones taught her to do years ago and was going to finish thru the tackle; at the last moment, when Alexandra can't adjust, Wilfred lowers his head and hits Alexandra's shoulder with the crown of his helmet.

There was a thunderous crack, it sounded like a couple of bighorn sheep ramming into each other, and the stadium went silent. Alexandra was terrified when she got up from the massive hit; she heard a wrong sound during the collision, looked at her stepbrother, and immediately waved over the medical staff. Wilfred wasn't moving.

It would later be confirmed that Wilfred was paralyzed from the neck down. Alexandra felt so bad about paralyzing him. Stephanie wanted Alexandra dead, and she couldn't believe that her firstborn was paralyzed. Her dad kept telling her and Stephanie that it was a clean hit and there wasn't anything Alexandra could've done differently to keep Wilfred from being paralyzed. Wilfred had lowered his head, and he was paralyzed.

Alexandra couldn't deal with Stephanie after the hit, and her dad fought with Stephanie over it. After she finished her sophomore year, she transferred to the University of Colorado, where her mom went and graduated from. Alexandra would text and call her dad now and then but never went back home. Alexandra finished her collegiate football, having broken numerous records at Ole Miss and CU.

She graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in Business Management. Alexandra continued to play football with a women's semi-pro Women's team, Denver Outlaws, while supporting herself by selling insurance. Alexandra always continued to push towards playing in the NAFL.