October 19, 1997
FOOTBALL 101 CLASSES DRAW RAVE REVIEWS
NFL teams are conducting a series of "NFL 101" classes for women interested in learning more about the game of football. Seminars were recently held in Dallas and Indianapolis. Following are excerpts from local newspaper stories about the classes:
"Professional football couldn't ask for a more enthused and forgiving audience than the crowd at Texas Stadium on Wednesday," wrote Jacquielynn Floyd in Thursday's (Oct. 16) Dallas Morning News. "Humbly and eagerly, they came to learn. Football 101, an NFL-sponsored workshop for women, has been a rousing success in more than a dozen cities, but nowhere as resoundingly as Dallas, A sellout crowd of 800 paid their $10 and signed up for the four-hour seminar…participants got dinner and door prizes and sweet-tempered Cowboys Bill Bates and Babe Laufenberg…They got a grounding in the basics…from there, the subject matter moved on to players and positions, penalties, strategies and scoring… The seminars are a result of professional football's growing recognition of a loyal and unrecognized fan base."
"Last night's large turnout is evident of the level of female interest in pro football," wrote David Markiewicz of the Ft. Worth Star Telegram. "While football remains a predominantly male participation sport, the number of girls playing high school football increased from 295 in 1994 to nearly 800 in 1995 and more than 125,00 of the 500,000 participants of the NFL Gatorade Punt, Pass & Kick competition for children ages 8-15 last year were girls."
In Indianapolis, Indianapolis Star writer Scott Horner: "A recent study conducted by the NFL indicates many women are fans of the professional game. Despite that strong presence, women often feel they don't know the game--or aren't taken seriously enough -- to talk abut the game with men. That's were 'Colts 101' comes in. The program allows Colts players to talk football with women. Tuesdays' night's class at the Colts' West 56th Street complex drew more than 100 women who spent about two hours peppering players and an NFL field official with questions about offensive and defensive schemes, rules interpretations and many other aspects of the game. Students rotated to meeting rooms and sat at the same desks as the players sit when reviewing film…in 'the barn,' they sat on the AstroTurf playing surface. In the lockerroom, they sat on the stools the players use before and after practice. Many gazed at and took pictures of lockers filled with helmets and pads. For a $20 fee which goes to abused-women's charities throughout the city, students received a meal, shirt, seat cushion and a small 'playbook' which includes sections on team and league history, officials' signals, explanation of positions and a football glossary. The students got what they came for, to learn enough about football to hold their own in any gridiron conversation."