‘Super-duper special’: Viral TikTok girl enjoys women’s football game in KC
The Kansas City Glory’s season opener was set to begin on Saturday afternoon, but viral sensation Elena Easley was sitting on the field, experiencing a vicious headache.
Her mom, Stephanie Easley, was worried about her 8-year-old second-grader.
Elena had captured the attention of the Glory, the nation and even the world with her love of football ... coupled with her disappointment in the lack of visibility for women’s football. One of the boys at Elena’s grade school had told her that girls don’t play the game.
The Glory and other teams in the semi-pro Women’s National Football Conference help change that impression. For this game, KC’s season opener, the Glory rolled out the red carpet for Elena and her family.
But Elena had already enjoyed a full day around town before the scheduled 6 p.m. kickoff at The Pembroke Hill School’s stadium.
She met with Nana Olavuo, the Glory linebacker who invited the Easleys to the game and pushed them to start a GoFundMe to defray travel expenses.
Olavuo gave Elena and her mom and dad a behind-the-scenes tour of GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium Saturday morning, too. Naturally, as Taylor Swift fans, the mother and daughter took pictures in front of the locker bearing the name of Travis Kelce, Swift’s boyfriend and star Kansas City Chiefs tight end.
Now, just before kickoff against the Texas Elite Spartans, Elena held her head in her hands after a grueling week of interviews and heightened attention.
But she was a valued guest, and she also proved to be a trouper: Elena performed the pre-game coin-toss as planned after walking onto the field with the Glory’s player captains for the game.
Applause rolled down from the crowd and a speech was read.
“There is room for you in every space you want to be in,” the public-address announcer said. “Girls can do anything and be anything you put your mind to. Football is for everyone.”
The coin-toss and a bag full of Chiefs gear gave Elena some further relief.
Overnight sensation
Just two weeks ago, the family from Cambridge, Minnesota couldn’t have imagined traveling to Kansas City to watch a women’s football game.
The Easleys are not a football family. Elena’s dad, Kenny, is a mechanic for an asphalt company and builds race cars in his spare time. Elena’s two older brothers play basketball, soccer and video games. Before football, Elena was all about horseback riding and helping her father with his autos.
But like many girls and women around the world, in the last two years she became interested in football thanks to pop star Swift’s relationship with Kelce of the Chiefs.
Mom, too: Easley is two years younger than Swift and has been a fan since the beginning of the superstar’s career.
“When she first came out and I started following her, I used to watch her documentaries,” Easley said. “And now it’s crazy, because now my daughter is a Swiftie and we get to be together.”
In Swiftie fashion, mother and daughter made 180 friendship bracelets in the Glory’s colors, red and yellow, and the Spartans’ colors, blue and black. Elena and her older brother, Thomas, passed them out to some of the estimated 750 spectators on hand at Pembroke throughout the first half.
Some folks recognized Elena from social media.
About that: After her classmate’s comment last week, Elena wanted to find other girls who like playing football. She asked her mom to make a TikTok; Mom obliged, and that video garnered more than 2 million views.
The Easley women have been swamped with positive response and interview requests from around the world. They’ve done nearly 10 appearances in seven days.
Some of Elena’s more skeptical classmates didn’t believe she’d been on the news.
“I’m like, ‘I don’t know how to prove this to you,’” Easley said. ”I sent the links to her teacher before I even knew this was a question. But now she’s going to come home wearing Glory and Chiefs clothes.”
All things considered, the Easleys, and Olavuo, are impressed with how well the naturally shy Elena is handling things.
“She’s embraced it very well, in a very mature manner,” said Kenny, her dad. “It’s been eye-opening about how open the community is and other communities out there.”
“She is the most mature 8-year-old I’ve ever met,” Olavuo said. “The fact that the first time she was told she can’t play football, it brought her to tears ... But as soon as she was told, yes, we can, and she saw that, she’s been so confident.
“The way she’s just switched up and she’s inspiring so many other girls, it’s just crazy how mature she is about it.”
One of the presents Elena received while in KC this weekend was a Glory jersey with Olavuo’s number 3 on it. The linebacker has become popular in her own right as a women’s American football player from Finland.
On Saturday, Olavuo feigned surprise at seeing someone else wear her number.
“I had no idea that there was another number 3 jersey, man,” she told Elena with a smile.
‘For Elena’
With full stands and vibrant energy, the Glory enjoyed a vigorous atmosphere for opening day. And those in attendance were rewarded with quality football.
The Glory forced a three-and-out on the Spartans’ opening drive and then scored a touchdown: running back Maria Fautali ran 44 yards to the end zone on KC’s first offensive play of the season.
That was a good start against the Spartans, who own five league championships, including four consecutive WNFC titles (2019-23).
The Spartans tied it early in the second quarter, but the Glory ended the first half by blocking a field goal attempt. It was 7-7 at halftime.
And Elena appeared to feel better after receiving gifts and passing out those friendship bracelets. An ice pack, some medicine and a couple of hot dogs helped, too.
Her headache dissipated and she was running, skipping and dancing as played resumed in the second half. Elena loves music, Mom noted (but doesn’t always enjoy watching her mom sing and dance, Mom also noted).
Texas Elite took a 14-7 lead in the third quarter, but the Glory answered in the fourth when Nashi Catron tossed a 15-yard TD pass to tight end Tiia Jansen.
The Glory then tried for a two-point conversion; that didn’t work out, but KC got another TD thanks to a 61-yard catch and run by wide receiver Ashura Powell.
It was 20-14 KC with less than six minutes to go. Both scores had the Easley women dancing on the field. But a tense conclusion was in store for Elena’s magical day.
The Spartans advanced all the way to the Glory’s 8-yard line and spiked the ball with 2 seconds left. But a false start on the play resulted in a five-second runoff, ending the game.
Her team victorious, Olavuo ran straight to Elena and gave her a big hug, calling her the Glory’s good-luck charm. Several nearby teammates agreed.
The 8-year-old girl from an hour north of Minneapolis had just seen the Glory pull off one of the biggest upsets in franchise history — their very first win against the Spartans.
“I need to keep FaceTiming her, especially before games,” said Olavuo, who made several tackles Saturday.
“She’s brought everything. Spending the morning of game day with her, and just being, like, inspired by her and everything, and then all these people coming out here, wanting to see her, all of our teammates wanting to see her ... we did this for Elena.”
Glory owner and co-head coach Keke Blackmon — a four-time All-Pro coach and 2013 Team USA gold medal winner — was emotional about the win for multiple reasons. Saturday’s game fell on the anniversary of the death of her mother-in-law.
“Super-duper special,” Blackmon said of the outcome. “You tell a female that they can’t do something, that’s not a good idea. It lit a fire under us.
“That little boy in Minnesota lit a fire in ladies way across the state, in Kansas City, to do something that he said that we couldn’t do. And we did it on the biggest stage tonight.”
After celebrating with the team in the locker room and getting an autographed game ball, Elena said she plans to wear her new No. 3 jersey to school this week and is excited to sign up for flag football in May.
The weekend was tailor-made to show the Easley family how welcoming and empowering sports can be for women. The visitors from the north leave KC humbled by the experience.
“I just feel so supported, so empowered, so inspired ... it was really good for her to see that,” Easley said.
“It was just really wholesome to see these kids going on the field afterwards, cheering with their families ... As a mom, you live your life through your children now, see these women have that piece for themselves.”
The Easleys will now have season tickets for the Minnesota Vixen, the country’s longest continuously operating women’s football team and a member of the Women’s Football Alliance.
“Social media really did its job,” Olavuo, the Glory linebacker, said of the whole experience. “We’ve got to keep pushing the game. Just post your pictures, post your highlights, keep posting about women’s football. Like, we gotta just get out there.”
The Glory next face the Mississippi Panthers in Jackson, Mississippi on Saturday, April 5 at 6 p.m.
The Star’s Lisa Gutierrez contributed to this reporting.
This story was originally published March 30, 2025 at 12:57 PM.
