Cassette player in 98 ford taurus is broken?

[Dave P]

I can put the tapes in alright but the player wont actually take the cassette in and play it. Im using an ipod cassette hook up so I can play music from my ipod which is the only reason I want to keep it. What happened is that after a while it started ejecting the cassette immediately after I put it in and would do this 3 or 4 times before it would recognize it and start playing. One day when it started to eject it again I (being the dumbass that I am) put my hand in front of the opening to block the tape from being ejected. After a second of forcing it back it gave and the tape went back in...only this time the player didn't take it in and push it down into the playing slot. Luckily the ipod casstte jack had a cord coming out of it so I could pull it back out. I tried to slide it back in a few times and force it down in to get it to play...nothing. even tried a few other tapes which still didn't work. Anyone know how to fix this or have a link for a site that can help me? Or is this cassette player shot?