Written by Troy Whigham
Two days before my local LFL team’s debut, the newspaper ran an article about the players and the team. Comments from readers weren’t exactly ringing endorsements. “How much are the fines for disrobing? We could take up a collection.”; “This is a complete joke. There better be some disrobing going on.”; “tramps”; and “Do these women have any self respect at all?” were just a few of the opinions expressed.
On game day, similar catcalls were made towards the players themselves as they lined up for kick-off. I know they heard them, particularly #9 Brandyce Lee, who had the unfortunate duty of being strongside cornerback playing closest to the stands. The people there were taunting her, and these were supposed to be her hometown fans.
Before I spend money, I do my research, and deciding to go to an LFL game was no different. I had seen the games on the Internet. I had read the players’ bios. Former college athletes, soldiers, grad school students. Daughters, girlfriends, wives, mothers. And now, pro football players. I knew what these women were doing and why they were doing it. They loved the sport and were willing to play in skimpy uniforms if that’s what it took to get people to watch. Coaching high school girls’ sports taught me not to underestimate what athletic women are capable of doing and I knew this would be football played in a competitive spirit, with a feminine twist. The name and the uniforms were just the marketing hooks to get people interested. It’s why the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League played in dresses in 1943. It’s why Florence Joyner painted her nails on her way to an Olympic silver medal in 1984. It’s why Serena Williams designs her own outfits and started her own fashion line. And to be honest, for the sports I play and used to coach, the participants usually wear a lot less than what is on the LFL field. So I watched the game as I would any football game; youth, high school, college and pro, I’ve seen my share. I was there to study the strategy and the players’ abilities (and mistakes). I was there to watch good sport.
The catcalls continued through each team’s first possession.
But somewhere at about the 8-minute mark, the heckling stopped. The jeers became cheers. The guys who were there for the bikini show started watching a football game, and they started to cheer when the Breeze got a first down, and jeered #16 of the Chicago Bliss when she threw a cheap-shot elbow at the end of a play on the sideline in front of the Tampa fans.
The crowd had come for a lingerie show, and a football game had broken out.
The funny thing is, nothing had changed on the field from the opening kick-off to the 8-minute mark. The girls were playing just as hard. It was the people in the stands that had changed. They had become LFL football fans. They understood. They’d flipped the switch.
At halftime, there was a contest to see if one of the men in the stands could stop #2 Mandy Magnuson from scoring a touchdown. She lined up with the ball at one end of the field, and the fan sat at the other end. It was all in good fun, and Mandy ended up getting picked up and carried the length of the field while the guy chatted on his cell phone “Hey man! I’m at a football game and I’m carrying a hot blonde all the way to the end zone!”
Tasha Pryor of the Chicago Bliss, the Earl Campbell of the LFL, got stood up in an open field tackle by Ashley Thunder (who left the game with a concussion afterwards), and then earned the enmity of Tampa fans by dominating the home town team with her strong running in the second half. Shannon Bennett of the Breeze had to be carried off the field after making a great defensive stop on the goal line.
And Brandyce Lee, who had endured the heckling early in the game, nearly got her head taken off on an end-around play that she cut back into the middle. She later scored a touchdown, made the critical tackle that prevented Chicago from scoring (twice), and caught a ball in traffic to keep her team moving down the field. Near the end of the game, with the clock winding down and her team behind, she was a wide-open target on a critical 4th-and-2 play that Jenn Myers one-hopped to her on a deep route. If Ms. Myers had a stronger arm, Mrs. Lee might possibly have scored again, or at least put her team in a good scoring position to take the lead.
And the women did it in skimpy 2-piece uniforms.
The Tampa Breeze ended up losing, but the crowd didn’t seem to mind. They were having a good time and enjoying good football. Afterwards, the players circled the field and slapped hands with the fans, the same fans that had hurled insults at them at the beginning of the game. The girls were thanking the crowd for coming out and watching, and the fans thanked the players for coming out and playing. The souvenir stands were swamped by people exiting the field as the players led the crowd in an impromptu cheer session.
It was women’s professional tackle football, with a feminine twist.
Long live sport.
I concur with your overall assessment pf the ladies. The most criticism comes because of the name of the League, how it’s marketed, and what the athletes wear. You will notice that I said athletes, not ladies.
I’ve been covering the Bliss since training camp in May and have been chastized for doing so. Not critically, but more in jest. Quite a few athletes showed up to try out. I’ve been covering girls’, women’s sports for many years and know an athlete when I see one.
This is not a dainty sport. These ladies hit hard and many have been hurt. They wear many a bruise as a badge of honor.
They are criticised for supposedly wearing skimpy uniforms but I’ve seen less on beach volleyball players. The top is no different than everyday wear, and the bottoms are old-school hotpants.
Have I seen any wardrobe malfunctions? A few, but minor. Double stick tape, multiple layers, and ripstop does the trick. These ladies don’t want to be embarrassed or embarrass anyone else, they want to have fun, play hard, and win just as much as any other athlete.
Enough said. I still have to edit the pics from the second half of the Bliss-Passion game. Takes a while to go through 1,700 pics from one evening.
Best to all the Athletes.
-30-
Ive seen some of those hits they put on each other in highlight clips. This aint no flag football league. This is real hitting football. I hope the best for the league.
“The crowd had come for a lingerie show, and a football game had broken out.”
That quote above is spot on. Whatever brought their ‘asses to their seats’ it is the sport and the football, LFL football, that will keep bringing them back.
This is a valid sport and I honestly think will be a major success. Its only the LFL’s first season and already fans are talking about wanting more games.
Long live the LFL
It’s been terrific to watch this year, the hitting, the tackling, the athleticism of the women players, teamwork, and the strategies involved in the game are better than I was anticipating for a 7-on-7 game…I think this league could ultimately define the supreme physical sports challenge for women athletes in the coming years, is more demanding than any other women’s sport I have ever seen. I Don’t expect the mainstream media to buy in, this represents a threat to their stale priggish mindset of what they want to sell to us…but this beats the WNBA, LPGA, Women’s tennis, and Women’s soccer league by miles…and has as much action as the mens pro sports.
I think the only shortcoming so far is that a few of the teams are way physically outmatched from the get go, and the QB talent is still a little short to put quality passers on each team…so just need to keep bringing in more women in who want to play the game. Las Vegas would be a great spot for a team, would have a huge pool of beautiful athletic talent to draw from (acrobats, athletes, dancers,…).
I’m glad everyone is enjoying the sport, and my article. I was lucky enough to have Brandyce Lee, who is featured in this article, give me a moment of her time for a follow-up interview. I’m finalizing the draft for her review and should have it posted up soon. Hopefully the sport will catch on and get picked up for tv broadcast. I think it would be a great fit for G4 or Versus or Spike.
[...] I wrote an honest review of the first Tampa game which has been widely circulated around the LFL blogs. If you haven’t seen it, you can find it here: http://www.playerpress.com/articles/flipping-the-switch and here: http://lflus.com/blog/?p=824 [...]
That was a incredibly good read,You learn new stuff each day.