As a fan of the WNBA, I've also tried to pay some attention to the development of other women's professional team sports.
Well...not lingerie football...but sports where the focus is actually the sport...
Anyway, I just caught this article about women's pro football by Jordyn White on TheRoot.com and found it to be an interesting look at a sport in the early stages of development...like pre-salary stages...
We spend eight months out of the year like this, running, lifting, sweating, hitting, hurting and bleeding for the game we love. And it’s all for the moment we will experience this Saturday, when we battle for the Eastern Conference championship against the Boston Militia.And of course one could read between the lines and say that the issue is not just convincing people that "women's full-contact football does in fact exist", but more annoyingly, convincing the lunkheads of the world that it's even worthy of existence.
None of us do it for the glitz or glamour. Our injuries—sprained ankles, broken toes, torn ACLs—may slow us down or temporarily take us out, but as soon as our bodies can handle it (sometimes even a little sooner) we get back out there.
We definitely don’t do it for the money. Our average salary is hundreds of thousands less than the average NFL salary (which amounts to roughly $0). Our manager, coaches and medical staff (one sports doc, two chiropractors, a podiatrist and a physical therapist) receive the same modest salary. And every day at least one D.C. Diva, be it a rookie or a nine-year veteran, is faced with the task of convincing a naysayer or non-believer that women’s full-contact football does in fact exist.
Wonder if there's any precedent for women's full-contact football at the high school level...if for no other reason to see the response from all those insecure male opponents of Title IX...
