A league of their own: Women’s Indoor Football League coming to the Capital City in 2014
There’s no doubt football is king in America. Whether it’s high school on Friday nights, college on Saturdays or NFL on Sunday, the entire Southeast practically shuts down three days a week to celebrate the boys and men who throw a pigskin around a 100-yard field.
Come January, women will have the opportunity to prove football isn’t just a man’s sport.
The Women’s Indoor Football League will begin training camps in January to become the nation’s first true pro women’s football league.
“Right now the only place women have to play football at a high level is the LFL,” said Ray Blanchette, President and CEO of Blanchette Sports Holdings. “Even though they changed the name from the Lingerie Football League to the Legends League, it’s still the same thing. There’s just so many things not right with the LFL.
“I figured it was time to give the women an option for a different place to play where they can play the same high level of football in groups of athletes, not that those girls aren’t athletes. I don’t know how you would word it. Keeping the quality of play high and making the level of competition even better. And not having to play in bikinis too.”
Blanchette is no stranger to pro sports. His company owns and operates the National Baseball League and the Independent Hockey League and is currently in talks to establish six more leagues in five different sports.
“I have several leagues going,” Blanchette said. “The plan was to go public with all of them once we were ready and the one that garnered the most attention, and the most attention would be the one we would move forward with first. A few of the leagues got a lot of interest, but the WIFL was the one that got the most. I never ever dreamed it would be that one. I just never thought.”
On June 30, the WIFL will hold a tryout in Birmingham to fill the rosters of the Atlanta Aces, Birmingham Black Widows and Montgomery Mustangs. It will be similar to an NFL combine, with passing drills, 40–yard dash, 3-come drill and broad jump. The tryout costs $25 and is open to any woman interested in playing football at the professional level.
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