Female football player tells all - on Ellen

I know that Lance Armstrong's mea-culpa appearance on Oprah's show this week will make headlines. But it'll be stomach-turning. That's why I think the better athlete-on-TV appearance this week is Caroline Pla's, who was a guest on today's Ellen show.

Pla is the fierce 11-year-old who desperately wants to continue playing football in the Philadelphia Archdiocese Catholic Youth Organization's football league. The league is boys only, which Pla's coaches didn't know until Pla was into her second year with the team. Someone dimed her out to the Philadelphia Archdiocese, and she was ordered off the team. Her coach made the case to let her finish out her second season. Now, she'd like to stay for a third, but nada, says the archdicoese.

That's a shame for Pla, who's been an outstanding player.

"Without a doubt, she was the most inspirational player on the team," her former coach Jim Reichwein told the Inquirer. "She was every bit as strong and as tough as any person on our team. She never backed down from a single challenge."

Pla started a petition to change the policy, and before her appearcnce on Ellen, it had over 33,000 signtatures. I have a feeling that number will leap, now that Pla has shown her grit on to a national audience.

Check it out.