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Some women watch the game because they like the strategy, some like the hard hits on the field, some like the drama on and off the field and some just simply like looking at the guys. Since my goal is to help more women become football fans, I'm launching a season-long "Sunday Night's Sexiest" challenge.
Each week I will nominate six of the best-looking players in the Sunday night game on NBC. At the end of the regular season, we'll have playoffs, and as a byproduct, you will know at least as many players, if not more, than most of your obsessed football fanatic friends.
This week, it's the Dallas Cowboys versus the Washington Redskins.
You can vote for one of the guys I’ve nominated, or you can email me your personal favorites and we'll have write-in nominations.
I've got lots to tell you about my Today Show appearance this morning, but I'm still not home yet and still haven't seen it on the "big" screen. Although I do know that my two-year-old seemed to like it, even though he couldn't understand why I couldn't hear him talking to me.
While Hollywood stars have long gone for basketball and baseball players, not to mention tennis stars and bike racing phenoms, there haven't been as many celebrity romances with football stars -- Paris Hilton's momentary dalliance with Arizona Cardinals quarterback Matthew Leinart notwithstanding. Why not more couples like New England Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady and girlfriend Bridget Moynahan, an actress who will appear in the pilot episode of ABC's new series Six Degrees?
Is it because gridiron stars are so big? An offensive or defensive lineman can weigh 300 lbs, so that's a little challenging for a size zero like Lindsay Lohan. Or is it that when these guys play, nobody can see their faces because they're covered with masks? Maybe the NFL needs to create more opportunities for glamour shots on the field, because a good, juicy romance with an actress is good for the sport. A red carpet entry to the stadium before each game? After parties at hot clubs? It's working for the five couples I've got pictured here, with more after the jump...
Before I get started, I wanted to tell you about me, explain my philosophy towards sports, and highlight a little of what I’ll be writing about in this blog.
I grew up with three older brothers who used to give me tests in football. I had charts in my room with the different offensive and defensive formations and I had to memorize them for random pop quizzes. I made sure I could pass the test because I just wanted to hang with my three brothers. Of course, hanging with the boys usually meant retrieving footballs from the bushes or running down the street whenever my oldest brother (who always played quarterback) accidentally threw the football too far for any civilian to actually catch. Even so, football was a fun, family affair. Every Sunday, we would gather around the TV and cheer on our San Francisco 49ers.
As I grew older I realized that not all girls/women were football fans. In fact, I started hearing that horrible term “football widow.” Well, I did some research and found that not all “football widows” really hate football; some just didn’t understand the game. I decided to write a book called The Female Fan Guide to Pro Football to help these women. After it came out, the NFL hired me as a consultant to design and implement a course called Football 101 to teach women about football. Stay tuned here for snippets the current course taught by Andrea Kremer, now at NBC.
This Female Fan site is designed for any woman at any age or any stage of life. If you’re in high school and want to follow what’s happening at your weekend football games, tune in. If you’re in college and want to hang with the guys or talk about something fun and timely between classes, tune in. If you’re working and wondering what everyone is talking about at the water cooler on Monday morning, tune in. If you’re single and want to find something timely and interesting to talk to your dates about, tune in. If you’re a mom and have kids playing (or planning on playing sports) tune in. If you’re a Grandma and have grandkids playing sports, you obviously want to be hip and know what’s at the center of their universe, so tune in.
If you know a lot about sports, let me know what’s on your mind. If you don’t know anything about sports, let me know what you need to know.
The offense is the team with possession of the ball at the beginning of a given play. The offensive team is made up of the quarterback and a mix of linemen, receivers, backs, and tight ends. The offense is made up of eleven players on the field at a time. However, the coach of the offensive team has some flexibility in how he configures his players. A typical configuration is five linemen (two guards, one center, two tackles), two receivers, two backs, one tight end and one quarterback.
There are some variations on this formation. For example, a coach can call for only one running back on a play, or two tight ends instead of one. Once you know the roles of the different types of players, these changes will be easy to understand.
Let's take a closer look at some of the positions:
For more information on running backs, see The Female Fan Guide to Pro Football.
