Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category
Are You Ready for Some (Women’s) Football?
It did not make much of a splash, but in mid-October the Women’s Professional Football League (WPFL) began play with 11 teams around the country. Believe it or not the WPFL isn’t the first attempt to kick off a women’s football league — in 1965 a professional women’s league was formed in the Ohio area, and in 1974 the National Women’s Football League formed and managed to hang out until the early 1980s.
Will women’s football ever catch on? Yes and no.
No it will never be even close the men’s version, if only because the market is already saturated with college and professional football. While there are some women who are talented enough to play positions such as kicker for men’s teams, I seriously doubt anyone could put together a women’s professional team that was on par with even a Division I football team.
On the other hand yes. Football diehards just can’t get enough and there are semi-professional football leagues and teams throughout the nation. These are people who are typically college players who weren’t good enough to play professionally but love the game and play it in a very organized setting for the enjoyment and pride they take in it.
I think a women’s semiprofessional league could certainly take off; I know I’d go to watch it just like I turn out for the men’s semiprofessional teams in the area. There’s just something about people putting on pads and hitting each other that is uplifting to the human spirit.
Source:
A League of Their Own. Dan Harris, ABCNews.Com, October 15, 2000.
Woman Suing Duke After Getting Cut by the Football Team
The Associated Press has a story about testimony in a lawsuit brought by Heather Sue Mercer against Duke University. It seems Ms. Mercer tried out for the football team as a walk-on kicker. She was given a 20-minute tryout by coach Fred Goldsmith who testified he cut her because she wasn’t good enough.
One of the kickers who made that team testified that in her tryout, Mercer’s field goal range was limited to about 35 yards. Such a limited range would prevent any kicker, male or female, from making a college football team at a decent university (Duke’s then-starting kicker hit several from 45+ yards, including one from 50 yards).
Goldsmith testified,
She was evaluated like a man would have been. I decided to judge her like a man who was not making a contribution to the team.
He also added that he admired her for trying out and offered her a manager position which she turned down.
Tags: Heather Mercer