Passion Football Player From Brookline Has Passion For Life

“Yeah, I guess I have a lot going on," said Tera McIntosh.

The 28-year-old Brookline resident is a master of the understatement. 

While working through the second year of her Ph.D program at Antioch University, Tera works by day with gang members as part of the Pittsburgh Initiative to Reduce Crime. 

She’s a co-founder of Project Coffeehouse, a non-profit organization aimed at establishing coffeehouses, whose proceeds go to rebuilding communities. On the side, she writes and performs slam poetry. 

McIntosh also happens to be a rookie offensive lineman for the Pittsburgh Passion.

McIntosh tried out two years ago, but was unable to commit due to her hectic schedule. The team practices three days a week, three hours a day from January to July. 

“But now, years later, I have more regular work hours, so I can fit it in,” she said.

She’s been fitting in athletics, one way or another, her whole life. 

“I’ve always liked to play sports,” she said, “In grade school I would play with the guys. I was always the only girl who played with the guys. They would pick me out.”

At Central Catholic High School in Johnstown, McIntosh played lacrosse and rugby, which she credits with whetting her appetite for contact sport. When she found the school didn’t have a softball team, she started one herself. 

“Tell me something can’t be done and I’ll do it, just out of spite,” she said. 

She never got the chance to play football in high school. Though there are rare cases of girls playing varsity ball these days, McIntosh thinks it should be more widespread. 

“It’s not inconceivable,” she said. “I think we doubt women a lot — their skill and their power and their strength.”

In grade school, she felt these restrictions first hand. 

“The lunch lady at recess wasn’t very nice to me,” she said. “She always told me to sit with my legs crossed because that was ladylike and that’s what ladies did. She wouldn’t let me play with the boys and would tell me to go play with the girls. There were only four girls in my class. There was no competition. I had to sneak away to play with the guys.

“Women are perceived as being non-dominant in life, relationships and employment,” she said. “But we don’t have to just stick to what we used to do. We can do other things.”

On Saturday, McIntosh played in her first regular-season game against the Passion’s cross-town rivals, the Pittsburgh Force. 

“It was a humbling moment,” she said, “walking out on the field before the game … None of us do it for the money, we don’t really get paid. I do it because I love the game and because there are little girls that come to our games and think to themselves, ‘I want to play football’.” 

The Passion won, 30-0.