I thought for a while about doing a piece on the Lingerie Football League, a league that intrigued and baffled me. I found it incredible that women were given a chance to play real tackle football, not powderpuff bullshit, but to put them in lingerie...not only is it heinously oversexualizing, but isn't it just plain unsafe?
So I was going to just write a typical rant on that, until I realized a former classmate of mine was actually in the LFL. I've known Saige Steinmetz (now of the Tampa Breeze) since middle school, and she's always been wildly athletic. Below is her interview. Lots of food for thought. Enjoy!
Much love,
The Sheriff
How did you get started with the LFL? What were your initial thoughts about playing for a female football league? How long have you been on the team?
I am a rookie on the Tampa Breeze team & I first heard about it over winter break of last year. My mom actually saw an interview on ESPN of the Philly coach & she told me to maybe check if Tampa had a team because I attended University of Tampa at the time so it would have been perfect. I found their website & followed them throughout the season til they had open tryouts in June.
My first reaction was, "Wow, I gotta lose weight," because every girl on the roster at the time wasn’t over 135lbs so I was thinking to myself that there was no way these girls can be athletes looking like skinny rails. But I decided to pursue the tryouts because football is something I have always wanted to do especially when you’re allowed to hit and tackle.
What do you like about it? Is there anything you don't like?
There really isn’t much I can say that I don’t like about it. I like the fact that it’s real football, it’s real 7v7 tackle football...you can hit, tackle, jump, smack, trip, do whatever it takes to get a girl down. I have played sports my whole life and I have never had a rush in any game like I have when I’m playing this sport, I absolutely love it.
A personal dislike about it is the whole modeling side, the glitz and glamour. It’s cool and all to get photos taken and see yourself on TV, but it’s just not me. I’m an athlete not a model, so I represent myself as an athlete rather than a model. But those are the two sides of it: football and modeling.
Also personally, I would rather wear a more covered uniform, but when I’m out there playing, the uniform is the last thing on my mind. My mind set is on the girl across me rather than what I look like in the uniform. The uniform and shoulder pads given to us for game days aren’t too safe either. Our whole team wears thigh high socks to cover up at least half of our legs, but we are playing on turf and turf burn does occur frequently. I still have a huge open burn on my knee from almost a month ago now and a scar from one on my stomach. Plus, the first game I dislocated my shoulder and was sent to the hospital because the pads they give us are nothing but shells sitting on top of our shoulders. So if they want to keep it real, mean, dirty, tackle football they got to start worrying about our safety when it comes to pads and covering us up.
Is there good team comraderie?
Our team is pretty close, my current roommate is also my team mate. I just met these girls a couple of months ago but I have gotten pretty close to some of them and I definitely love going to practice to see everyone. We have fun but we also work hard. But again, I’m playing on an all girls team, everyone knows how girls are and how petty some of them can be but that’s the point of playing on a team…if there wasn't drama, practice could get boring haha. Plus every team has those certain individuals who are not team players and tend to just play for themselves but I don’t let any of that get to me. 95% of our team plays for each other and I’d have it no other way.
How are the fans?
The fans are great. Whether they are out there checking us out or actually watching football doesn’t get to me as long as they are having fun. I mean I used to go to football games or baseball games just to see who was hot or not in the games, so I’m not going to judge someone for something I have done myself. They do support us a lot but we could always use more and need more support. I have two different facebooks now to keep my football life separate from my personal life because promoting is a BIG thing in this league. If we don’t promote then the fans don’t come along then we go off the air and lose the league. The league is still semi-new and I feel that it is only getting bigger and better, so I am excited to see what the future holds for us.
What's the training like? Are there a lot of demands on your time?
The training isn’t anything I’m personally not used to but if you haven’t played a competitive sport at some point in your life, it might come off real intense. I played two sports in college for the last four years so I came into tryouts in semi-good shape but from June til now, my shape has only gotten better. All of our coaches have experience in the NFL so they know what they are talking about and they certainly know how to train us. It’s definitely not a joke but because we only do practice three times a week, you would have to do outside training yourself if you want to get better. I personally do all my training during the week (Mon-Fri), which includes lifting, running, eating healthy & practicing football. But then on the weekends, it’s "me" time, I relax, recover and eat whatever I want. It keeps me busy all the time, just like a job, which I love. So the training is definitely no joke, but to me it could always get harder :)
Do you have any obligations aside from games/practices/trainings?
Yes, we have photo shoots and promotions and advertising and all that good stuff. It’s nothing crazy though, we have only had 3 photo shoots since I started playing, a couple of promotions here and there, and we have team posters and flyers all around the city of Tampa. We are doing the best we can to let the people know what the LFL is and what it is we really do.
What do you think about the uniforms?
The question about the uniforms is always asked haha. Like I said before, I’m not thinking about what I’m wearing when I’m running around in the game trying to compete and win. We only wear the uniforms game days, so it’s not like I have it hanging ready for me to put on. They keep all uniforms and have them for us on game days. One major thing I do not like about them for sure is that they are one size fits all. This kind of just makes me laugh that they actually think every girl on our team is built the same and will fit in the uniforms perfectly, but it’s just something we got to deal with. I know among the girls, we have thought of better ideas on what to wear and still look "cute" while playing, but again, the league is still new and we're hoping some things change but if not, it’s fine, I don’t think it could get much worse at least.
Had no idea this existed and it does seem pretty stupid and obvious, but who knows, it may lead to a legitimate women's football league.??
ReplyDeleteInteresting, there is this too: http://www.iwflsports.com/
ReplyDeleteBut I think they get considerably less media attention than the LFL
Interesting interview. It was cool of Saige to grant it.
ReplyDeleteBased on what little I knew of the sport before reading this, I had put it in a wholly different category than Roller Derby, which seems to be gaining support from some feminists (at least the ones I know). They actually seem pretty similar in terms of what's expected from the athletes and the motivations for participating.
Thank you for posting this. I am new to your blog and look forward to reading more of it in the future. I was shocked when I saw a commercial for Lingerie Football League. I don't agree that it's feminist at all. I think it's a prime example of how women are viewed as sexual objects whose primary purpose is to arouse and entertain men. I think it's offensive and, I imagine, embarrassing for other female athletes that don't cash in on their looks and sexuality.
ReplyDelete