ALLEN PARK, Mich. (AP) — Football players were running, throwing, catching, blocking and tackling — with a steady stream of trash talk between whistles — as the sun set on a recent night in the Motor City.
Other banged-up athletes stood or sat on benches behind each sideline, ailing from a torn calf and a torn knee ligament, unable to play in a game watched by about 100 fans cheering for the home team and 11 people backing the visiting squad from Canada.
While the action and the setting were not unusual, the gender of the players did stand out.
“We do it all just like the boys,” Detroit Prowl punter Kelly Bernadyn said. “But we're women.”
Women have been playing tackle football for decades, mostly under the radar, but two league commissioners believe it will be part of the next wave as interest in women's sports grows.
When Detroit beat the MIFA All-Stars of Ontario in an American Women's Football League game at Allen Park High School, daughters, sisters, mothers and grandmothers experienced the joy of big plays and camaraderie along with the pain of inevitable injuries.
After a postgame handshake line along the 50-yard line, the black-clad Prowl and the visitors in pink gathered on the visitors' sideline to celebrate their sisterhood and shared goal of growing the sport.
“You just begin to love these girls around you," said MIFA All-Stars quarterback Rachel Vesz, who is from Toronto and played rugby at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. “And, you all support each other.”
Walking wounded
Despite the inherent risk of injuries in football, women are choosing to join pay-for-play leagues for the love of the game and to inspire young girls to play a game traditionally limited to men.
“I use my own health insurance when I am injured, same with all of my other teammates,” said Bernadyn, who works as an EMT and fitness instructor. “But at the end of the day, it’s worth every dollar I’ve paid.
“It’s worth every ice pack I’ve needed to use, every day of rest, every cast, every boot, because I know that I’ll be able to line up on that football field again.”
Playing for championships
The Prowl lost their bid for a second straight AWFL title with a first-round loss in the 14-team playoffs that wrap up with the league's second championship game July 12 at West Charlotte High School in North Carolina, streaming on BAWLLR TV. The AWFL has 18 teams from eight states and Canada.
Two leagues, meanwhile, have raised their profile enough to have women competing for championships on ESPN2 in high-end venues.
The Women’s National Football Conference will have its title game on the network for the first time on Saturday. The Washington Prodigy will face the Texas Elite Spartans in Frisco, Texas, at the Dallas Cowboys’ Ford Center, which has about 12,000 seats.
“When someone sees the WNFC for the first time, it opens up the possibilities,” said Odessa Jenkins, founder of the WNFC. "It's like, 'What a minute. Women play tackle football?' There's no greater joy than to open up new possibilities for yourself and others.”
The WNFC does not pay salaries, but does plan to give a total of $20,000 to the players on the championship team and did budget to pay weekly and season award winners thanks in part to financial support from Adidas, Dove and Riddell. The Women’s Football Alliance does not pay players either, but some of their costs are covered by sponsors such as Wilson, ticket sales and licensing rights.
The WFA will be back on the network for its championship game on July 26 at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio, where MVP jerseys from previous title games are on display.
“This new contract with ESPN is a testament to the high level of football played on the field contributing to the growing popularity of our league on a national and international level,” WFA Commissioner Lisa King said.
Two better than one?
Former WFA players include Katie Sowers, who became the first woman to coach in the Super Bowl as an offensive assistant in San Francisco, and Jennifer King, who was the first Black female full-time coach in the NFL in 2021 when she was Washington's assistant running backs coach.
Jennifer King, who is on the WNFC advisory board, hopes the sport's top two leagues find a way forward together.
“When you have two champions, you want to know who's the best,” she said. “It would be great to have one Super League, but it would be really hard to do because both of the leagues are far down the road.”
Sowers agrees.
“A big issues is, everyone has an idea of who can do it best,” she said. “We need to come together and create one powerhouse league that has more resources.”
Flag on the field
The NFL is investing a lot in flag football, which will be an Olympic sport in 2028. The league did give women's tackle football a platform at halftime of the Pro Bowl in 2020, when 22 players from the Utah Girls Football League were featured in a scrimmage.
Former NFL offensive tackle Roman Oben, the league’s vice president of football development, applauded the commitment women are making to play tackle football.
"It’s been really commendable to see the growth of the sport,” Oben said. “There isn’t a formal partnership with the NFL, but there have been discussions with a few of the leagues. We’re aware these women are paying to play for pads, insurance, equipment and travel and they should be applauded.”
Flag football, Jenkins said, will ultimately have the same effect on women's tackle football as Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese have had on the WNBA and the sport will benefit from the increased interest in girls and women playing basketball, soccer, softball, volleyball and more.
"Flag football is putting the ball in the hands of more girls and women than ever and it's going to create the greatest pipeline in the history of the sport,” Jenkins said. “Women have been playing tackle football for 60 years, but now we have brands everyone knows stepping up to alleviate some of the financial pressure on our players and that's what it is going to take to move it past a club level.”
