I am the demographic. The 22-year-old college student with a penchant for beer and most of whose thinking is admittedly done below the waist rather than above the shoulders.
Yet no matter how many boxes I tick, I cannot for the life of me come to grips with the Legends Football League (formerly Lingerie), and this was no more evident than after my first experience attending a game this weekend.
For perspective’s sake, I currently play football at a college in the great state of Oklahoma, adore the sport of ‘gridiron’ and as far as I’m aware am indeed heterosexual.
Ignorance to the sport is not the issue that affects my overall experience, I say this because American football’s stop-start nature and complicated rulebook is a great hurdle to its future growth in Australia.
That being said, I walked away with quite a few gripes and thoughts of Australia’s newest ‘sport’.
The first being that of its constant description as a ‘sport’.
Defining sport is difficult.
Generally speaking, sport is athletic competition and contains rules and regulations, respect for the game and sportsmanship.
From what I witnessed in Australian LFL, it carries merely one of these traits – the athletic prowess of the competitors.
Full disclaimer, knowing a number of the players on the WA team, I greatly respect the amount of hours they put into the sport and the toll it takes on their body.
They work hard and are legitimate athletes.
Not only that, but in so many aspects of life I am ‘pro-choice’. I don’t believe it is our job to attempt to censor the LFL and that every woman involved has made the conscious decision to make this commitment and we should respect that, no matter how much we may disagree with the product itself.
I am not saying that LFL shouldn’t be classified a sport based upon what the participants do on the field, but rather what is common practice for everything surrounding the game itself.
Rules and regulations
LFL players are labeled as fierce competitors, powerful individuals and not your regular female athletes.
This is translated during the game with constant post-play fights, skirmishes and taunting that would bring penalties in any other football league.
If I were to take count, and I’m being generous here, I would have guessed roughly 417 flags for excessive celebration, unnecessary roughness or roughing the passer should have been called.
Not quite up to par for any league that would consider itself a sport.
Respect for the game
As a whole, I am forgiving for not knowing some of the rules to American football, as even the most diehard fan can attest to not knowing of some of its greater intricacies.
Hell, even some potential Hall of Fame NFL quarterbacks weren’t aware that a game could finish in a tie – *cough Donovan McNabb cough*.
Seeing players line-up on the wrong side of the field for a play and a good old fashion schoolyard pile on after an incomplete pass for no reason are more than acceptable in the heat of the moment.
What is not however, are the pre-game video packages which consist of calling the opponents “bitches” and then making play on word insults that would make even the most immature third grade bully shake his head in disapproval.
All of which were displayed on the same video screen just seconds before the Nelson Mandela ‘in memoriam’ graphic.
I’m hoping this was a biting social commentary about how petty our squabbles can be in the greater context of the world…but that might just be wishful thinking.
Sportsmanship
Quite comfortably the least prevalent in the game I witnessed.
Apart from the obligatory post-game handshake line, there was very little to any sportsmanship displayed.
Now I’ve never been one to subscribe to the ‘picking up the opponent’ way of thinking but what was on display was so far from that it was deplorable, confusing and in many ways so laughable one could think it was just a very well written piece of satire.
In the one game, we saw egos and smack talking from those hardly established enough in any regard to warrant it and then most appallingly the open taunting of injured opponents from opposition players.
For these reasons, I believe that LFL is more akin to that of professional wrestling than that of its pro-counterpart the NFL.
The similarities are strikingly evident.
There are ‘Heels’ and ‘Faces’ (good and bad for the non-wrestling fans among us).
The WA team were all smiles and sunshine, whereas that team not from around these parts, not dissimilar to the Iron Shiek versus Hulk Hogan in the early 90’s, came straight out the gate with a bad attitude and free middle fingers for all in attendance.
There are gimmicks. The NSW Surge were introduced with their fiery red-haired running back storming the field with a pre-game dance that was part Ray Lewis, part Brock Lesnar and part Blanka from the Street Fighter franchise.
The referees let much extracurricular play go unchecked, not dissimilar to how refs never saw that dastardly Mr Fuji help Yokozuna with his powder attack all those years.
And the LFL is run by an enigmatic, charisma-charged owner not dissimilar to Vince McMahon (or Vince McMadman depending on whether he’s good or bad at the time).
The easy response I will more than likely receive is that of “if you saw the bruises the next day you wouldn’t say that”.
To that I say, yes, yes I would.
Professional wrestlers suffer concussion after concussion, broken bones, muscles torn off the bone and risk their life every show – it still is not a sport and they would be the first to tell you so.
The notion of half naked women tackling each other, taunting and fighting after every play all of a sudden becomes much more forgivable if it is labeled as entertainment rather than sport.
In short, I’m all for freedom of choice. I’m all for sport. I’m all for entertainment.
However, I am not for the LFL pulling the proverbial wool over the eyes of the Australian public in an attempt to call this spectacle a ‘sport’.
It’s not sport.
It’s entertainment.
And that’s the bottom line, because Stone Cold said so.
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