What started as a halftime show to keep eyes glued to the TV screen during the Super Bowl has now become it’s own league: The Lingerie Football League.

The league is exactly what it sounds like–women wearing what amounts to bathing suits, garters, shoulder pads and helmets–playing full 7-on-7 tackle football. Fridays game coincidentally mirrors the World Series matchup between New York and Philadelpha (the league plays one game per week, generally on Friday).

Complete with 10 different teams (the Chicago Bliss, San Diego Seduction, Dallas Desire, to give a few of the overtly suggestive names), the league has no if ands or ‘butts’ about it, the girls must be beautiful, young and thin. The oldest player in the leagues is 35, with most averaging around 25. The heaviest girl in the league is a mere 148 (at 6′2″ I might add) and all the women went through rigorous try-outs.

Whitney Tatum, a Pennsylvania native who plays for the Denver Dream participated in a try-out session and then was offered a contract only after practicing with the team for a week.

“My boyfriend’s coworker heard about it on the radio. The try-outs were about four hours and pretty intense,”  said, Tatum who gets paid per game. “We get a percentage of the ticket sales so we all do our best to get out there and promote and get people in the seats.”

I can only imagine, from what I have seen in the photos that the majority of the fans are male and drunk. The women promote their sport with the LFL’s blog, aptly named “Unlaced.” One of the more recent blog posts is by recently divorced 24-year-old Buffalo native Krystal Gray. She talks about life and love, and her passion for football. Did I mention she is wearing just about nothing in her picture and looks closer to belonging on the cover of Playboy than on a football field?

The brainchild behind the league, Mitch Mortaza said the league was all about marketing a brand.

“Women’s athletics haven’t been that popular primarily because they’re not the most attractive people in the world, usually, and in this day and age your brand has to be marketable.” So he sent them out there in a bra and panties and ta-da! A profitable league was born.
Even Mike Ditka got in on the act and will hold a stake in the league, “This an opportunity to be part of something truly special in its inception phase,” said Ditka.

Thanks Mike.

The kicker is the players want to be respected. In September Chicago Now spoke with a few Chicago Bliss team members who talked about wanting to be taken seriously. Twenty-year-old Katie Liberatore, a student, even added “I’ve dated football players in high school and watched it on TV, so I know the general gist.”

Ah! So beauty and brains is what it takes to play in this league. Good to know.

Honestly, I am not sure which is worse. That it took practically naked girls running around playing football for guys to get interested in women’s sports, or that these women are happy to entertain a mostly male crowd.

Tatum made sure to add, “It’s a lot of fun playing.” And isn’t that the most important thing?

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