Women's Football

Well today I found out that we have not just one, but two women's football leagues in the United States. The Independent Women's Football League has 42 teams and the National Women's Football Association has 37 teams all with 50 to 60 women on a team. I found an article in the NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/sports/football/13sharks.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5070&en=896e05e23464ff93&ex=1211428800&emc=eta1) from May 13, 2008 that discussed one of the many women in the IWFL. Her name is Jennifer Blum and she is a lawyer and was recently a contestant on the NBC show American Gladiators. The article started about how when she was younger she was not allowed to play on the boy's all-star soccer team, so her and her family took the N.J. county to court and won. There was a backlash though with her parents car being vandalized and she also lost some of her friends through the whole ordeal.

I have to say that it is very interesting to here that there is such a large popularity for women's football here in the U.S. I had no idea that the two leagues were so large. I believe that this is just another example of the discrimination that women face when being active and playing a so called "male" sport. Each of the women who are on the team have to pay $1000 a year in order to pay for all of the field, referee and other fees associated with keeping the league running. The two leagues have a real hard time coming up with sponsors to help with the costs and therefore must pay out of pocket so much more than most other sports. I believe that we could generate more popularity for the women's football even by playing short highlights on ESPN. At least that way the general public would know it exists. I'm not asking for much just a 30 second spot to get people interested would be a great start.
Brian Tunnicliff
Kin 338 T/Th 9:30-10:45