Different For Girls
Germany? American football? Women?
So many of the intercultural heavenly bodies have to be in alignment before you can get a German woman who wants to play American football in -- well, in a league that doesn't really exist.
However awesome it is that a bunch of regional players' wives got together and decided that they wanted to play too, the stark reality of American football in Germany today is that there's no teams or leagues for you. It's not like the National Women's Football Association in the US -- which, to be honest, I never even heard of before today. Still, it's out there, and if you're willing to play for teams with names such as the Massachusetts Mutiny and the Gulf Coast HERricanes (should have outsourced the onomastics) and watch barnburners like last year's 74-0 championship game, that's all you.
Here, though, we have even more of a frontier. These women got ridiculed, and found it difficult to be taken seriously.
Q: Did you get enough women to play much?
A: No, not enough for a league. We didn’t have official games, just scrimmages. But we practiced with the guys. It was more like flag football. Not tackling, drills. Movement drills. How you tackle somebody. Passing drills. They made fun of us playing... but then [scrimmaging] they were nice.
See? To most fans, this is the equivalent of middle school kids practicing in their parents' garage. They only got those game faces during scrimmages because I'm sure the men felt that they COULD... NOT... LOSE.
Well, the idea has exploded in the soul of woman, and the gods no longer have any power over her. Given the general state of American football here, this has to succeed. I'll do my part, in terms of patronage, at least. Has there been any teams following in Shaw's cleatsteps? They've got to be out there, Berlin especially. In the meantime, when I go to the States next week, I gots to see if I can catch one of these Pittsburgh Passion games. (I really hope their dancers are male.)