Toyota released a Super Bowl commercial on Sunday featuring Toni Harris, a free safety for East L.A. Community College who early in 2018 became one of the first women in history to be offered a college football scholarship. Here’s the commercial in full:
The quick backstory on Toni Harris, the star of Toyota’s minute-long Super Bowl ad
Harris is one of the first women ever to be offered a college football scholarship.
The commercial starts with a person in a hoodie loading a bag into the trunk of a (Toyota) car on a running track. “They’ve said a lot of things about Toni Harris,” a narrator says, as shots of Harris training and growing up roll over the screen.
“They said she was too small. They said she was too slow. Too weak. They said she’d never get to the next level. Never inspire a new generation. Never get a football scholarship. Yeah, people have made a lot of assumptions about Toni,” he says.
“But I’ve never been a big fan of assumptions” Harris cuts in.
“And neither have we,” the narrator says. He introduces a new RAV4 Toyota. And that’s the commercial, comparing Harris’ rise as a football player to Toyota’s development of a car.
Further background, from SB Nation’s Morgan Moriarty:
Last spring, kicker Becca Longo signed with a DII school and may have been the nation’s first woman to ever earn a scholarship from a program. A few other women played college football even before her, though.
Harris has dreams of playing in the NFL one day. Getting this scholarship offer is one step closer to that goal.
Bethany College, an NAIA school in Kansas, offered Harris a scholarship in January 2018. She currently plays free safety for East L.A., a junior college.
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By Sarah Hardy and Christian D'Andrea
