The Legends Football League (LFL): “a (hot) league of their own” now seen on KIX

Bob Guerrero’s loss is my gain, I guess.

He was originally tasked to cover the arrival and interview of three selected ambassadresses from the fledgling Legends Football League (LFL) as they made their promotional stop in Manila recently. Bob couldn’t make it as he was en route from Dumaguete City after his coverage of the highly successful Palarong Pambansa so the office sent me, and I guess I didn’t really know what to expect. I was right.

I’ve been a National Football League (NFL) fan since I was a teen in the 1980’s. I grew up watching such legends as Dan Marino, Barry Sanders and Jerry Rice and when I was told I was interviewing some ladies who were part of a new women’s league—much like the 1992 Tom Hanks/Geena Davis/Madonna flick “A League of Their Own”—I was intrigued at the prospect of talking about the sport with a few rugged athletes and why they chose to be the distaff counterparts of the NFL. I sort of forgot the part about how they marketed themselves as a league, so that part was literally an eye-opener.

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When I walked into the Recto Room at the Manila Peninsula Hotel that humid Monday afternoon, members of the print media were busy fielding answers from our three attractive visitors clad in sports gear (you know, jogging pants and jackets). Angela Rypien, Liz Gorman and Natalie Jahnke (pronounced “yankee”) came across as eloquent and well-spoken women who (while seated) didn’t really register as athletes, but more of spokesmodels who knew what they were talking about and were doing a great a job in explaining their mission.

After their session with that batch of reporters ended, a brief pictorial followed. The whole room fell silent as the three stripped their “athletic” attire to reveal their athletically sculpted bodies donning what allegedly were the uniforms they wore during games.

To the unaccustomed eye, it would appear that the uniforms looked more like swimming bikinis. But to one like me who has been covering women’s volleyball for nearly a decade, the uniforms were a close relative of what beach volleyball players suit up in. Then the gear came on and they began looking more like the gridiron warriors I expected to meet. Well almost.

“The first time I wore the uniform, it felt really sexy,” recounts Rypien, the starting quarterback for the Baltimore Charm and the only daughter of former NFL Superbowl MVP Mark Rypien. “When I added the shoes, I felt naked. It was definitely something I had to get used to.”

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The whole concept of the LFL began innocently enough under another name: the Lingerie Football League which was featured as an alternative halftime entertainment presentation during Superbowl XXXVIII on Pay-Per-View (PPV). The “Lingerie Bowl” featured women in helmets and pads with “limited” clothing playing 7-7 American football. After three stagings of the event, its founder and commissioner Mitch Mortaza and his business partner Heather Theisen (now LFL’s COO) elevated the LFL from a mere PPV endeavor to a full blown league in 2009.

“The Lingerie Bowl was a one off during the Superbowl,” Theisen, a former model explains. “In 2007, Mitch and I got together and began planning the league, going to established football markets like Seattle, Chicago and Cleveland, and in 2009 the LFL began.”

NBC Sports’ Rick Chandler called the LFL, “the fastest-growing pro sports league in the nation”. That’s a major testament to a league that has now departed from one of the aspects that made it a crowd-drawer.

In 2013, the league rebranded itself and transformed into the Legends Football League; a move designed to draw more attention to the athleticism of the players rather than on the attire—or lack of it. A more streamlined apparel akin to beach volleyball attire has now taken the place of the regular lingerie-like garb the ladies donned during matches. Marketability is still of utmost importance to all involved, however.

“Before the game, you’ll see a lot of make-up artists in the locker room,” Jahnke points out. “We still have to look our best in front of the crowds and for the camera out there. It’s part of us being marketing representatives of the league, even if we also are the products.”

26-year-old Gorman has been one of the catalysts of the three time league champion Los Angeles Temptation as its starting wide receiver and safety as well as occasional stints at running back. Having been an athlete of various sports all her life, the transition to the sport was easy. It was the uniforms that originally got her problems.

“I come from a very conservative Christian family,” says Gorman, a three time Defensive Player of the Year. “But now my family sees that I am involved in a sport and the uniform is just what we wear in the league. Sure, some of the fans initially come in to see how good we look in the uniform, but after a while, you’ll get to see football and more and more people are starting to understand that.”

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Jahnke, 23 and 5’10”, actually took the liberty of giving me a “hit” when she put on the armour. She caught me flush in the bread basket and I had to pretend I wasn’t chasing my breath afterwards.

Among the highlights of the day for me was actually meeting Angela Rypien. Her father was one of my childhood heroes and one of the reasons why I fell in love with the game when he and running back Gerald Riggs led the Washington Redskins and completely bamboozled the Buffalo Bills in Superbowl XXVI, which I happened to watch live on cable TV—the first time I ever witnessed a Superbowl live.

“When the Redskins won the Superbowl, (then Washington) coach (Joe) Gibbs asked my mom if I’d follow in my dad’s footsteps,” Angela recalls, smiling. “I was barely two years old and I was dressed in this cute pink dress. My mom told Joe ‘…are you kidding me, she’s a girl!’ It must have been surreal for her when I suited up for the first time.”

Another highlight was finding an edge to get more of an “exclusive” with the girls and my photographer George Calvelo had a brilliant idea: take them shopping.

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Angela, Natalie and Heather agreed to spend their one hour shopping allotment with George and I (Liz passed on shopping to get her hair done) and we made the most of their time, bringing them to a nearby mall and into a shop filled with products indigenous to the Philippines. During the mini-spree, I learned that Angela, 23, 5’11” has a serious ice cream addiction and has the hots for athletes but avoids serious relationships. She even caught a glimpse of a well-known retired Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Fil-Am cager while we were walking and “checked him out” saying, “Now that’s my type”. Natalie is the 2013 Miss Harley Davidson and has never had short hair in her life and Heather is a serious shopaholic who also always looks at the Nutritional Guide of each food product before purchasing them.

Heather ended up almost buying the store as she stuffed two shopping baskets with various items ranging from a box of Tabacalera cigars to abaca placemats, while Angela got stuck sampling—and buying—a vast array of local teas which included Salabat and Pito-Pito. Natalie was content in a small bottle of Lambanog, which I warned her to be “lethal”.

Before heading back to the hotel, George and I treated them to four different varieties of Boy Bawang and after Heather questioned the sodium content of each pack, the three “tourists” began a systematic consumption of the corn product, until the consumption speed increased rapidly to the container’s very bottom—before we could even cross Ayala Avenue. They were very charming and very receptive to the hospitality we provided and Heather hinted on planning a return trip.

“Two days here is just too short,” Heather exclaims. “Hopefully, if the powers that be can come together, we can have a demo-session here soon and maybe find a way to develop the league in this region.”

Having had stops in Indonesia and Singapore prior to heading here, the LFL contingent were then off to Hong Kong before returning to the US just in time for the LA Temptation’s home-opener against the Seattle Mist on May 4 at the Citizen’s Bank Arena in Ontario, California.

The LFL has already began its expansion in Canada (4 teams) and Australia, where “the land down under’s” very own Chloe Butler is one of the stars for the Temptation. Plans are also underway for opening an LFL Europe in 2015. An LFL Asia could be the next item on the menu for this rapidly-growing undetaking.

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“We are excited to bring America’s fastest growing sports league to Asia. The LFL is not about models attempting to play football. The LFL presents tough, sexy, and talented female athletes playing full-contact, American football. At KIX, we promise our viewers the hottest action from around the world, and action does not get any hotter than this,” said Betty Tsui, Vice President, Programming – KIX and Thrill, Celestial Tiger Entertainment, who was also gracious enough to entrust the ladies in our care for that brief shopping shindig.

KIX’s homes in the Philippines are on Skycable channel 63, Global Destiny channel 10 and Cablelink channel 220. The LFL began airing on KIX last April 28 and will continue to air the matches every Sunday at 10:30PM. KIX is a new and riveting cable channel that showcases programming from Asia and the United States including a multitude of reality shows, action movies and sports. The LFL fits right into its programming style and is Must-See-TV for every Filipino.

But despite the short stint, the people these ladies have touched will always remember the wit, charisma and passion they brought in introducing us to a sport we already know and to a league we have yet to experience. Perhaps in the future, we may see Angela, Liz and Natalie in action on KIX, or maybe even live.

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But I really hope this “league of their own” blossoms into a spectacle that can be something we can all call our own—much like the NFL. Long live the Queens of the Gridiron and may we become your loyal subjects. All hail.

Follow Noel Zarate on Twitter (@NoelZarate)