Deion Sanders praises Haley Van Voorhis as history-making college football player

Van Voorhis' safety blitz made news and was a topic of conversation for Coach Prime

Andrew Wevers-USA TODAY Sports

Haley Van Voorhis made history last weekend for Shenandoah University. She became the first female football player to play a college football game at a position other than kicker. Her safety blitz made news and was a topic of conversation for Deion Sanders. The Colorado Buffaloes coach was asked about Van Voorhis and praised her accomplishment.

"I’m happy for her. First of all, I’m concerned about her safety. I want to make sure she’s safe," Sanders said Tuesday. "But I’m sure if she put on the pads, she understands what goes along with that. I believe in equality not just of ethnicity, but gender as well. So I’m all for it. God bless her."

Van Voorhis became the eighth woman to appear in an NCAA football game.

In 1997, Liz Heaston, a kicker for the NAIA's Willamette University in Oregon, became the first woman to play and score in a college football game. It was two years later that Colorado's own Katie Hnida became the first woman to play in a Division I football game. She was unable to register any points while at CU.

Vanderbilt kicker Sarah Fuller became the first woman in history to score in a Power Five college game when she successfully kicked two extra points against Tennessee.

“It’s an amazing thing,” Van Voorhis told the Washington Post. “I just wanted to get out and do my thing. I want to show other people this is what women can do, to show what I can do.

“It’s a big moment. I made the impossible possible, and I’m excited about that.”