Lingerie Football League shedding lingerie, and not in the fun way
In a move sure to polarize fans of what is billed as the "Nation's
fasted growing sports league," the Lingerie Football League has
announced plans to rename itself the “Legends Football League.” As part
of the move, the LFL will be ditching the thing that made the league
noteworthy in the first place: lingerie.
The league announced the
change in a press release this afternoon. Other changes include new
team logos absent of "sexy female figures," redesigned shoulder pads to
increase protection, and changing their slogan from "True Fantasy
Football" to "Women of the Gridiron."
The players will no longer wear modified bras, panties, and garters while playing tackle football on turf (ouch!), instead favoring more traditional performance wear which will “replace all lingerie aspects” of the league’s uniforms.
The
league is billing it as “the next step in the maturation of our now
global sport.” It goes on to state that the change was made to stop
being “viewed as a gimmick” and legitimize the sport by focusing on its
athletes’ talents, rather than their bodies.
It’s a good move, if
you ask me. More importantly, it’s the right move. I wonder how many
potentially fantastic football players didn’t get into the league
because they didn’t look as good in their skivvies as a less
athletically-gifted player. If you’re going to market the league based
on football alone, you better make it so the best players can play, no
matter what they look like.
But it’s also worth wondering what
impact this will have on the league as a whole. Are the sell-out crowds
the league boasts about showing up to watch the exciting seven-on-seven
play? Did the LFL become the first female sports league to get its own
videogame because of the novelty of football with no punting or kicking?
Are Philadelphia Passion fans showing up to the Wells Fargo Center to
watch the athletic prowess of the players?
Let’s face it,
probably not. After all, the video posted by the league to accompany the
press release still shows LFL players pumping iron and doing
calisthenics in the skimpiest workout gear imaginable with occasional
close-ups of their hard, sweaty bodies. But at least we can get away
from the wink-and-nod marketing of the league that danced around the
fact that you were basically seeing an angry, mutated version of the
Victoria’s Secret fashion show.
When the dust settles, it’ll be
interesting to see what happens to the league. Can the LFL succeed where
leagues like the Women’s Professional Football League, the National
Women’s Football Association, or American Football Women’s League before
it failed? Or will a move away from that which made it unique --
T&A – doom the league to the same fate as the others I just
mentioned: DOA?
No one watches women's sports to see women competing, because watching inferior competitors isn't as fun. People need to give up on their perfectly equal fantasies and accept this fact.. there's a reason the WNBA loses money every year.
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Lingerie Football League shedding lingerie, and not in the fun way
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