She can — and will — play football (whether you watch or not)

Cassandra Negley

She can — and will — play football (whether you watch or not) image

Jennifer Welter made it into the history books with a 1-yard loss.

The 36-year-old became the first woman to play a non-kicker position in a men’s professional football league last February when she took a handoff in the third quarter of an 8-on-8 Indoor Football League game outside of Dallas.

PHOTOS: Independent Women's Football League

She was there in that game, she told the Dallas Morning News, not to advocate for women to play in men’s leagues, but to gain visibility for the women’s leagues.

There are women who want to play football and currently do so, but they pay high fees and wedge it into a tight schedule that includes full-time careers and family responsibilities.

These women have three leagues to choose from, though it’s the Independent Women’s Football League that has the longest history, even if it is a quiet, unwritten one.

Its players range in age, from 18 to 50. They sell scratch-off tickets to earn money and hang out at a bowling alley with fans to make some more. The teams squeeze in field time between little leagues and youth games, fitting practices around work and school. The term “pay for play” is so far out of their vocabulary, it’s like a high-level word you’d find on the old SATs. These women are thankful they have the chance to play at all.

Most have never played organized football before, arriving with rugby backgrounds at best, because when exactly would they have had the chance? There are no teams for girls, leaving playing with boys as the only alternative.

That’s not such an easy task.

“We all know the story of the one girl who joins the boys to play football,” said Laurie Frederick, the IWFL’s CEO and one of its founding members. “It’s our opinion that there’s probably another 30 to 40 girls behind her who’d want to play if it were all girls.”

It’s that belief that keeps Frederick going as she continues to grow the IWFL and builds a foundation that encourages girls who dream of carrying a football instead of pom-poms.

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Frederick helped found the IWFL in 2000 after trying out for a team in an already established league. She felt the men who started that league “were not in it for the best reasons,” adding it “felt like a bit of a scam.”

Enter a new league, run and funded by the very women who are driven by the game.

“We had the football bug bite us and wanted to play,” Frederick said. “It was definitely a grassroots start. Several teams found each other and we made a loose league.”

There were three teams and about 60 players that first year. It’s since grown to 30 teams with approximately 2,000 players over three tiers of competition in its 14th season.

“To date, we’ve had 16,000 to 17,000 women come through our doors, (who’ve) worn an IWFL patch at some point or another,” Frederick said.

Wearing that patch can be similar to having a high school letter with boosters and candy bar sales funding participation. Owners in the IWFL carry the brunt of costs while players pay steep rookie and yearly dues to pay for equipment. Fundraisers are the norm, not the exception.

Ebony Kimbrough, the owner/coach/manager/player combo for the Carolina Queens, contributes several thousand dollars out-of-pocket each year to keep her team going. A localized travel schedule and smaller traveling squad keeps costs significantly lower for the team, established by Kimbrough in 2005, but players still have to either find a sponsor or attend fundraising events, such as bowl-a-thons and selling scratch-off cards.

“It’s one of the things we don’t really like, but it’s a necessary evil at the present time,” said Kimbrough.

She requires players to pay a $1,000 rookie due for equipment, which can be paid on a scheduled plan instead of all upfront. Veterans pay $150 a season for the new goods Kimbrough purchases: a T-shirt, hat or maybe a sweatshirt.

It’s by no means a money-making operative for the real estate agent.

“I’m not … I don’t really care if I make any money from it, because this is just my passion, this is what I love,” Kimbrough said. “I live for it, I can’t live without it, I can’t really ever make a profit from it, but if I can just be even and let it pay for itself, I’m happy with that. Or if we could get to the point where we make a profit enough where we could get the girls maybe a small paycheck or incentives for certain things throughout the season, I’m good with that, too.”

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Rebels vs Knockouts action (Jes Quesada/IWFL)

A little bit of cash in their pockets might be nice, but that’s not the green players show up for. They realize they won’t be paid and while it’s irksome, at least they have a football field to take aggravation out on.

“When you love something, you find time to do it,” said Frederick, who along with everyone else in the Austin, Texas-based IWFL front office has a full-time job. “Some people watch TV in their spare time. People in our league office do this.”

Frederick said it’s “hard to say” what the league’s finances look like, but that it “breaks even.” That’s likely because there’s little money involved. No one with the IWFL is paid — everyone running the national sports league is a volunteer.

Without cash, teams rely on social-based marketing campaigns, though owners do occasionally splurge for traditional advertising. Kimbrough said she’s paid for commercials and even a billboard. Social postings, such as league updates and game photos, have helped tremendously in recent years.

Though Kimbrough said people around Charlotte now recognize her for her work with the football team — “Hey, yeah, you’re the football lady” — women’s football as a whole hasn’t gained national traction.

One of the easiest solutions, said Kimbrough, is to receive the constant stream of publicity she sees other sports receiving.

“Even if it just was reported on ESPN when they’re doing all the other scores,” Kimbrough said. “Just simple, something simple like that. ESPN has done little things on it, but it’s just like here and there and here and there. It’s not a continuous everyday thing and that’s what we need.”

News outlets set the agenda, for better or worse. If a sport isn’t within sight, it’s out of mind. It’s part interest, part culture, part coverage.

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While the IWFL slowly built a loyal following in the late 2000s, it watched as the upstart Legends Football League spiked in popularity before it even played a down.

Sponsors rolled in, TV deals were cut, media pounced and a loyal following arrived faster than it took the women to put on their uniforms. And oh, those uniforms. All it entailed was women in skimpy clothing and shoulder pads who wanted to play football.

“The lingerie league, which excuse my language, is some bullshit,” Kimbrough said. “They have some sponsorship behind it because they put two things men love together: football and women in no clothes.”

The idea of the Lingerie Football League, its original name, was a direct result of the early 2000s alternate Super Bowl halftime program, the “Lingerie Bowl.” The official league began in 2009 with 10 teams and featured women playing 7-on-7 football with outfits you’d expect to see in the bedroom. As founder Mitchell Mortaza told Bloomberg Businessweek in 2010, “You have to be athletic, confident and beautiful” to play in the league.

Women in the “True Fantasy Football” league, as the original tagline promoted, work their uniforms to perfection: the women are small, skinny and in perfect model-esque shape. It’s exactly what the league relies on to bring in young men drooling over the idea of half-naked women tackling each other. It’s mud wrestling with a cleaner view.

The women at the Queens practice are all fit, but their appearance doesn’t translate to a runway at New York Fashion Week. They aren’t there to play for possible wardrobe malfunctions or ogling frat-house eyes.

“Me personally, hey, whatever, but I feel like it takes away from the sport itself,” said Kimbrough, who began her playing career 10 years ago. “I put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this and I want to be appreciated for playing the sport, not because of what I look like in a bikini.”

The LFL hadn’t even wound a play clock before signing a broadcast deal with MTV2. Many of the teams play in professional facilities, such as Quickens Loans Arena (home of the Cleveland Browns) and Target Center (Minnesota Timberwolves). It attempted to gain credibility in 2013 with a rebrand, changing the name to the Legends Football League, the tagline to “Women of the Gridiron” and the uniforms to be “less sexy.”

“Less” is a broad word here, as the new uniforms still are more reminiscent of a bikini than anything remotely close to something one would wear to play a contact sport.

All of that adds up to an increase in fans and prominence, shown through its 400,000 Facebook likes, the modern statistic used to gauge interest. In comparison, the largest, most successful women’s sporting franchise, the Women’s National Basketball Association, has 535,000.

Frederick doesn’t want to compare her league to the LFL, saying the latter is more along the lines of adult entertainment than sport.

“I’d just say they’re doing something different,” she said.

Without the draw of sex appeal, the IWFL has to work harder to promote its product. Social media is a great asset, but it’s community involvement that has provided an extra boost of interest, as well as a larger pool of talent. Teams visit nearby schools to promote the game and give encouragement to young girls who have always wanted to play football, but have no place to do so.

“Me, from middle school, I’ve always wanted to play, but didn’t have anywhere to play,” said Kimbrough, who welcomes interested high school girls to help out with game day preparations. “So we’re letting them (young girls) know now, as soon as you turn 18, there’s a sport that you can play. A sport you love watching, you might play outside in the backyard with your brothers, there’s a true outlet for you to look forward to.”

Women and girls are increasingly using that outlet.

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Val Halesworth watches from the sidelines.  Halesworth was nominated for Sportswoman of the year by the Women’s Sports Foundation in 2003. (Fred Bird/IWFL)

Sierra Stritzinger scans the field, looking for an open receiver. The 12-year-old is too young to play in the IWFL, but the Pittsburgh Passion invited her to a practice earlier this year.

On a field full of fellow females, Stritzinger no longer was “that girl.” She is, however, when she suits up for the East Allegheny Mighty Mites.

Frederick said there are many girls wanting to join in as Stritzinger has, so why haven’t others bucked up and joined in?

It’s not as simple for girls. There’s the “no girls allowed” stigma and a lack of women showing them it’s OK to play.

The stigma of football as a boys-only club isn’t as prevalent now as it was 100 years ago, or even 15 years ago, but it’s still there and it’s still difficult for a young girl to break through it. Take, for example, the comments made by President Barack Obama when he discussed the issue of concussions in football.

This past January Obama told The New Yorker, “I would not let my son play pro football.”

He had the same answer to a similar question with The New Republic last year.

His son. Not his daughters, of which he has two, but his son. These five words — “If I had a son” — explain the cultural stigma.

Obama surely meant no harm with his statement. But in a public forum, as the President of the United States, he automatically associated football with boys. Worst yet: no one really noticed.

Add that to every other high school pressure — bullying, fitting in, having friends, being “normal” — and it’s a situation ripe for disaster. It takes a strong girl to join the team just as it takes a strong boy to join the volleyball team.

Part of Frederick’s plan as the IWFL CEO is to open up playing opportunities for young girls by starting teams for them.

“We spent approximately the past decade on proving women want to play football and can play football,” Frederick said. “Our vision now is to grow the league for girls in middle school and high school.”

To accomplish that, she and the staff have set up the Women’s Football Foundation, a charity designed to promote events, raise funds and distribute grants for girls football programs.

At least 1,531 girls in 32 states and 1,086,627 boys in all 50 (plus the District of Columbia) played organized 11-man football during the 2012-13 school year, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.

Title IX completely changed the landscape for girls in sports. Since the 1972 law, participation has risen from 1 in 27 girls (3.7 percent) to 2 in 5 girls (40 percent) according to the Women’s Sports Foundation. Even so, a lot of money is spent on football and basketball programs and less on other sports. So adding a women’s football team into the financial discussion for high schools and colleges is shot down without a second thought.

“The biggest argument against girls football teams is the cost,” Frederick said. “So we’ve started a charity foundation, the Women’s Football Foundation, to raise funds. We’d have grants to fund the first few years (of a girls football program) and then they’d be self-sufficient after that.”

Since IWFL league offices are in Austin, an area that has been supportive of the initiative with girls football leagues and tackle teams, Frederick sees Central Texas as a the most logical starting point for the country-wide initiative.

The move would create feasible opportunities for girls to play football with other girls, giving them teammates with which to take on the haters.

***

Just as young girls need football role models, the IWFL could use a league to look up to.

There’s an argument to be made for soccer, but it’s the U.S. national team that garners the most attention. Though there is a professional league, it’s still finding its way.

Look no further than the WNBA, the most prominent women’s team in the nation.

The WNBA’s success is based on three critical aspects — timing, a good business model and the help of the NBA — none of which were more important than the other, said Val Ackerman, the league’s first president.

“We could put a penthouse on top because we had the ground floors,” said Vackerman, who served from 1997-2005 and is now the commissioner at the Big East Conference.

Women’s basketball had long been building to a professional league by starting with a strong base. Young girls were increasingly playing basketball in high school thanks to Title IX and at the college level the Final Four was growing in national popularity. The 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games were huge for the sport while the U.S. national team’s tour further increased its reach and fandom.

“Interest was cresting,” Vackerman said. “The college game and the Olympics, all eyes were on it.”

It’s a simple case of supply and demand, but to succeed, there must be a good business model to capitalize on it. In sports, an organization must find its niche.

“It’s like alphabet soup with all the acronyms out there,” Vackerman said. “What are you up against?”

For the WNBA, it was up against the NBA and college basketball. The best route, Vackerman said, was a summer schedule that was complementary to the NBA, instead of competitive.

The WNBA also had the benefit of being a part of the NBA. The two organizations are not partners; the WNBA is an internal organization that is owned by the NBA. There are operating agreements between some NBA and WNBA teams. The NBA spent more than $10 million a year keeping the WNBA afloat early on.

“To have that organization’s support was vital,” Vackerman said. “If we were independent, it would have been infinitely harder.”

Many of the 12 teams (and counting) are profitable now after the NBA’s financial backing. Put simply, what would have happened had the WNBA been forced to go it alone?

“It would have been very hard, if not impossible, would be my sense.”

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Rebels vs. Nightmare (Jes Quesada/IWFL)

The IWFL is doing it the opposite way: maybe you can build a foundation once you have the roof intact.

“I wouldn’t say we need to (grow top down), I’d say we were forced to,” Frederick said. “It’s the hand we were dealt. In the beginning women weren’t interested in playing football. (Building it this way) just kind of happened.”

The IWFL is working on building its foundation now. Its business model already schedules around the NFL and college football with the regular season running April to July.
And though the NFL supports football in all areas, it isn’t looking to acquire a financial interest right now.

“We don’t currently have plans (for a women’s league),” Vice President of Corporate Communications Brian McCarthy said. “But we do support football wherever it’s played and by whom (it’s played).”

But the IWFL does have USA Football’s assistance.

The non-profit organization is the official youth football development partner of the NFL. It provides resources, leads educational programs and fields national teams, one of which is a dominating women’s squad.

“I’m not patting ourselves on the back, but we literally destroyed every team we played,” said Kimbrough.

OK, so “literally” might be over-reaching, but not by much.  

The U.S. outscored opponents 242-7 through six games spanning the 2010 and 2013 women’s World Championships. Even better: The U.S. defeated northern-rival Canada by a combined 130-0 in the championship games.

The women have proven they can play, and play well, but there’s still one unanswered question: Is this something that can draw significant interest from a large fan base?

“My dream would be to be successful in our initiatives for girls so that girls playing football is not unusual, it’s the norm,” Frederick said. 

Both Frederick and Kimbrough mention seeing an increase in interest and fan attendance. The family atmosphere is a draw, said Kimbrough, while Frederick cites the personal relationship players make with fans.

Kimbrough said with promotion and knowledge that the league is there, she sees the IWFL becoming a household name. It’s already grown substantially since she first started her team, and if the IWFL is rolled in with the competing Women’s Football Alliance and Women’s Spring Football League, there’s a large group of women, without any of the perks the men get, showing they will find a way to play.

“Between the three, nationwide, there’s literally 100-plus teams,” Kimbrough said. “If that doesn’t say, you know, ‘we ’aint going anywhere,’ I don’t know what does. And it grows and grows. Every year we’re adding a new team somewhere.” 

Frederick said she believes the nation is ready to embrace girls and women playing football. 


“There’s an openmindedness on the boxes people are putting both girls and boys in,” she said. “I think (an all-girls team) will be more accepted than a coed organization.”

Easy-Bake Ovens are turning gender-neutral. Goldie Blox is encouraging girls to build with construction toys. Toy stores are losing the “boys” and “girls” divided sections. So why shouldn’t football be next to break the barrier?

“If no one else is going to do it, we’re going to do it. Women deserve an opportunity to play this game,” Frederick said.

***

Jennifer Welter left Allen Event Center outside of Dallas the proud owner of -1 yards on three carries in a men’s professional game. Headlines screamed, “Woman football player gets walloped” and “Female running back tackled multiple times.”   

But as Team USA, in town for team camps, watched from the stands, Welter showed the world on a bigger stage women can — and will — play football. The money doesn’t stop them. The lack of acknowledgement doesn’t stop them. Year in and year out, more women like Welter will play.

And maybe, just maybe, when Sierra Stritzinger moves up to a professional team, she’ll get to see her name as it flashes across the TV screen.

Cassandra Negley