The Lingerie Football League: Fantasy Football or Sexual Exploitation?

Its Friday night, it’s the end of the work week. All you want to do is relax and watch some football. You may think football doesn’t come on a Friday night, but Lingerie Football does.

The Lingerie Football League (LFL) is 14 women playing full contact football in booty shorts, bra tops, helmets and shoulder pads; on a 50 by 30 yard field, trying to score a touchdown. There are two schools of thought to the LFL. It’s either true fantasy football at its finest or true sexual exploitation at its lowest.

The LFL currently has 12 teams including its new expansion team in Canada, the Toronto Triumph. They are also expanding to Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Quebec City and Montreal for the inaugural season of LFL Canada 2012. The Canadian teams will play a 12-week fall season, culminating in the first Canadian Lingerie Bowl on the eve of the 2012 Grey Cup in Toronto on Nov. 24th. The LFL also plans further expansion into Australia in 2013 and into Europe in 2014. However, the LFL has experienced problems in Canada. After one game, 22 of the team’s 26 players of the Toronto team quit because of questionable coach changes and safety issues. Former Toronto player, Tanja Reed Matlock said, “Mitch said we need to stop complaining and do our job. He let us know we were replaceable. Then gave us 24 hours to decide if we want to stay or pay the $5,000 fine.” Not only was Toronto experiencing problems but the Minnesota Valkrie also experienced a sudden coach change as well.

The LFL started in 2009 and is an offshoot of the Lingerie Bowl, which was featured on Super Bowl halftime shows. They signed a national TV deal with MTV Networks in 2010. And according to “Business Week”, compared to other organizations such as Ultimate Fighting and the World Wresting Entertainment; the LFL has achieved more growth, from national TV viewership, attendance and wealth in their first two years than any other sport franchise. And don’t think it’s just horny 20 year old boys watching the LFL either, 40 percent of the fans are women.
But why do women want to play for the LFL? Current LA Temptation player Danielle Harvey said, “I love the comradery of the girls. We train, travel and eat together. And for all those people who have bad things to say about the LFL without watching us play, you need to open your minds and watch a game first.”
For those who are thinking the LFL is the only women’s football team around, you’re wrong. There are four other female leagues around and more popping up every year. The four leagues are:

·        The Women’s Football Alliance, which started in 2009, has 63 teams in Mexico and the US and is the largest ever women’s football league.

·        The Independence Women’ Football (IWFL)league started in 2000 and has 51 teams, 6,100 women spanning from Canada to US.

·        The Western Women’s Canadian Football League which started in 2011 and boasts 7 teams

·        The Powder Puff Extreme League started in 2011 and has 5 teams.

All four leagues are full contact and wear full football gear.

Amber Reed who plays for the LFL and played for the IWFL said,"I played for the

LA Amazones; at the time we were in the IWFL. The major difference is the IWFL is fully padded 11 on 11 tackle football actually playing an entire four quarters, with a full 10 games season maybe more if you make the playoffs. The IWFL was less about the money and more about the game/competition; affording women the same opportunities as men. The LFL is still trying to get its feet off the ground and is trying to be a lot more public facing, which brings in a whole other arena of publicity, marketing, and those types of issues that come when building a business. Both are still similar in a way with monetary issues, having trouble finding fields, trying to keep certain franchises a float etc."



Owner Mitch Mortaza



     While some might see the LFL including its players as female empowerment others see it as sexual exploitation at its fullest. The LFL draws more sexual attention than any other women's football league, but at what cost if any cost at all? According to a interview done with the "Calgary Herald", the owner Mitch Mortaza said, " Unfortunately, and this is just the blatant truth of it all, the culture we live in here in the States, and I'm assuming it's the same in Canada from what I've seen and read, women's athletics have a tough time competing in terms of visibility and fanfare with major men's sports. That's why initially there has to be some  kind of a hook to it. For us, that hook is sex appeal. Once we sell that, if the product isn't tangible, isn't compelling and isn't respectable it's not going to have much of a shelf life."

Back in Canada, people are trying to make the LFL go away and ban them outright which is what worked for Oklahoma.
 It has come to a point in society where sex sells and the LFL doesn't mask the obvious. With more skin the LFL gets more viewership. With more skin the LFL makes more money. And with the thousands of women who stand in line to try out for the teams it doesn't matter how pretty you are, if you aren't an athlete you won't make the cut.

LFL players will argue that the league is empowering because they are real athletes that can be tough on the field. A lot of these women are former professional, NCAA and high school athletes.

However, that's not the feeling from every women who played for the LFL. Brittanie de Garbot, who is a nurse and a former player for the bowl winning LA Temptations team said, "My experience with the league has all been negative. My experience of getting to learn the sport was the only positive."

     So you have female athletes who love the sport of football and don't mind playing in a bra, shorts and suffering injuries.

     The question is how much do they get paid? The answer is NOTHING! So why do the women do it? With the serious safety concerns and issues around proper coaching, it's hard to believe there aren't a lot more injuries.
 A year after playing for the LFL, De Garbot finally was able to pay for her knee surgery. She found out the LFL contract only covers injuries up to a certain amount during a game and not during practice. She has to say this to girls who are thinking about trying out for the LFL, "Ask yourself what you're worth. If your answer is not very much then play. Be warned and know that you don't matter, because the league doesn't care about you. They are the quintessential wolves in sheep's clothing."

So with that being said, why do they do it? For the love of the sport? Or the notoriety? Or the attention? And if this is all about female empowerment don't the women get to choose what they want to do with their bodies? Or do the masses who have never watched a game get to choose? Are these women not considered athletes because of what they wear? This is almost the same attire as female track athletes or volleyball players. So, there you have it. The Lingerie Football League, football at its greatest equaling female empowerment or football at its worst equally sexually exploitation.

You decide. 



Check out: http://www.lflus.com/ for more information.