Fantasy Football? Lingerie League sparks amusement,outrage

It does not require a great deal of imagination to work out the marketing strategy of the Lingerie Football League,which opens its debut season on Friday....

It does not require a great deal of imagination to work out the marketing strategy of the Lingerie Football League,which opens its debut season on Friday. The underwear-clad female players are hoping,however to be taken seriously. The LFL,born out of the commercial success of the Lingerie Bowl,a half-time show of women in scanty outfits broadcast during the half-time break in the NFLs Super Bowl,has ten teams competing in seven-a-side full-contact American football,with players dressed in sports bras and the tiniest of shorts.

The branding is blatant the teams have names such as the San Diego Seduction,Dallas Desire and Los Angeles Temptation and their websites and promotional material are more akin to those for NFL cheerleaders than genuine professional sports. The leagues founder Mitch Mortaza has described the venture as Disneyland for football fans but those taking part say they are serious about the sport and about winning.

I think it is eye candy for one but it is also football and it is real, says Kaley Tuning,wide-receiver with the Miami Caliente. There were try outs for the team and if you couldnt play you didnt make the cut, she said. Ive seen people say it is a joke and it is degrading and it makes me mad. We are real athletes,for them to not take us seriously,well I say wait till you see us play, she added.

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Watching the Caliente practise,at a sports facility in the suburbs of Miami under the charge of former college football quarterback Bob Hewko,the strange clash of glamour girls and sport is quickly evident. The training is taken seriously and the players work hard and look intense in the huddle but a Gucci handbag takes its place alongside the helmets on the sideline and one player,who like many is also a model,worries that she has picked up scratches ahead of photo shoot.

Real football

Hewko concedes that looks played a major part in selection but,like everyone involved in the venture,says fans will see real football. I was surprised at the level of talent. They can run,they can catch and we have a quarterback that can throw the football 60 yards, he said. It is unlikely to be the throwing prowess of the players that brings in the punters,however.

For the first game,it is going to be people wanting to have a good time,wanting to see beautiful women playing football and getting down and dirty, said Miamis defensive captain Taira Turley,who is also a professional make-up artist.

Feminist writer Courtney Martin has no doubts over whether the LFL will help women. This is objectification at its most pernicious give women an opportunity to participate in a sport that they havent had the chance to do for pay and publicly previously,but only let them do it if they are stereotypically pretty and willing to do it in their underwear, she wrote on website feministing.com.

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So why not play the game in conventional dress? But then half the people wouldnt watch, said Tuning. But then there is going to be a group of people who watch it because of (the attire) and they might say: Wow this is real,athletic and they know what they are doing.