They Told Her Girls Couldn’t Play Football. So She Bought the Team

“You’re Too Old For That” is a regular series that explores inspiring activities being pursued by those over 50 years old who feel you’re never too old to do what lights you up.

When Andra Douglas was growing up in rural Florida, she fell in love with football. Her father introduced her to the game; she played with the neighborhood boys, and she couldn’t imagine doing anything else. The problem was that girls weren’t supposed to play football.

“I played the other sports simply because I wasn’t allowed to play football,” Douglas said.

Most people would have accepted that answer and moved on. Douglas didn’t. Decades later, she would become a national champion athlete, owner of the legendary New York Sharks women’s football team, a Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee, author, artist, and one of the pioneers who helped push women’s football toward the mainstream.

Read: Katie Taylor Goes Out Fighting: Ireland Says Goodbye to Its Boxing Hero

Discover: More sports articles

Today, as women’s flag football continues its explosive growth and prepares for its Olympic debut in 2028, Douglas can see just how far the sport has come and knows she helped make it possible.

An Opportunity She Never Expected

Douglas finally found her chance to play football in college through flag football. After moving to New York City, she continued competing until a new women’s tackle football league was created in 1999. Her team expected an investor to purchase the New York franchise. When no one did, Douglas made a decision that changed the course of her life. After the original $50,000 asking price failed to attract a buyer, she offered $20,000 for the team. The league accepted her offer.

“I didn’t want to own the team,” she said. “I just wanted to play.”

Owning the team turned out to be far more complicated than she imagined. The league’s promised financial support never fully materialized, leaving Douglas and her teammates paying for travel, officials, and many other expenses themselves. Eventually, they joined an independent league where, as Douglas explained, “we supported ourselves.”

Twenty Years of Building Something Bigger

What began as an unexpected purchase became a nearly 20-year mission. Douglas eventually resigned from her position as creative director at Money Magazine so she could dedicate herself to running the football team full time. It wasn’t simply about winning games. It was about creating opportunities for women who had never been given the chance to play the sport they loved. When she decided to sell the New York Sharks in 2018, she negotiated one final season before stepping away. The ending plays out like a Disney movie. Former players returned, the chemistry was undeniable, and the Sharks won the national championship in their farewell season.

“It was the most magical year,” Douglas said. “It was really a storybook ending.”

A New Chapter Inspired by Real Life

That unforgettable final season inspired Douglas’s newest novel, Changing Cadence. Although it’s fiction, it’s rooted in Douglas’s real life. As she prepared to step away from football after two decades, her mother was adjusting to life in an assisted living community. The story follows both groups as they navigate major life transitions and form unexpected friendships. For Douglas, the title reflects a universal truth that every stage of life requires us to adapt, whether we’re starting a new career, leaving one behind, or entering an entirely new chapter. Football is only one chapter of Douglas’s remarkable career.

Before becoming a team owner, Andra worked at Cosmopolitan Magazine and then at Atlantic Records, where she directed creative projects, designed album artwork, and worked with celebrities including one of her favorites, Jane Fonda.  Today, Douglas has once again reinvented herself. She creates mixed-media artwork using her own photography, printing images on bamboo paper before transforming them with oil paint, shoe polish, liquid glass, pastel, and other materials. Her football-inspired collections have been exhibited across the country, and she hopes to return to New York with another exhibition soon.

Finding Your Voice at Every Age

Ask Douglas what she hopes people take away from her work, and the answer isn’t about football championships or Hall of Fame honors.

It’s about courage.

Growing up, she remembers being told to “play pretty.” Today, she encourages women to do exactly the opposite.

“It’s so important for girls and women to speak up. Find your voice. You do count, you do matter.”

Douglas spent years hearing that football wasn’t for girls. Instead of accepting those limits, she created opportunities that didn’t exist before, helped build one of the most successful women’s football programs in history, and inspired future generations of athletes. Today, Douglas has two jerseys hanging in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, one for tackle and one for flag football. For the little girl in rural Florida who was told she couldn’t play football, that’s quite a full-circle moment.

“You’re Too Old For That” is a regular series that explores inspiring activities being pursued by those over 50 years old who feel you’re never too old to do what lights you up. Are you doing something inspiring? Do you know someone who is pursuing a passion in their older years? If you or someone you know is 50 years old or older and should have their inspiring story told, please email the editors at Nifty 50+