Lingerie Football: 101

So I got a pretty strong reaction to my last Lingerie football post both on twitter and on Facebook, mostly because I actually know some of these players from being around the world of women’s football for the past few years. Let me be clear, the women actually playing this game are athletes, doing things that most of us could only dream of doing.

I understand that, but to me this is a gimmick league, and the gimmick is sex. That is fine too, sex sells no question. However, we have seen several football leagues come in with a gimmick (the WFL and the XFL specifically) and ultimately the gimmick is what helped kill those leagues off. Granted scantly clad women sort of playing football is a great hook, and why this league is among the fastest growing sports league in America right now.

So with that being said, let us take you through the rules or more specifically how the games are played. This is a 7 on 7 contest. On offense there is 1 QB, 2 RB’s, 1 down linewoman, and 3 wide outs. On defense we have 2 down D linewomen, 1 linebacker, 2 corners, and 2 safeties. There is no punting and there are no field goals. Additionally every four downs must feature two running plays and two passing plays.

The women play two 17 minute halves, and there is a 15 minute half time. If there is a tie, one eight minute sudden death period is played. The play clock is 35 seconds long. Obviously the strategy is to keep the action moving and not let people like me think about each pay too much. Teams have 20 members with 14 being active and six being non active each week.