Buy Walking VideosThe First Woman in the NFL
Anica Mercado started out her weblog entry with the following phrase:
“This weekend entailed a roughly six hour drive to our first away game.”
I saw the picture of football players and thought to myself, “She must be a cheerleader.” It was so beyond my cognition to think that she could actually be playing on a football team herself. Man, just when I think I’m totally forward thinking, my prejudices smack me in the face with a Whiffle bat.
After playing a couple of games, she has dreams as big as any football player has had:
“I’ve also been sitting here and thinking about my dreams. I’m a big dreamer. So, baring my soul to you all, I will divulge one of my bigger dreams: I want to play football in college. If I’m really, really shooting, I want to be the first woman in the NFL.”
She immediately follows her declaration with a dismissal…
“Now, I’m not stupid, I know that those are very, very unlikely. Like I said though, I shoot high.”
Why does it have to be very, very unlikely? I think the NFL should play like softball, where you have to have a minimum of 45% women on the field. If we integrated sports that way, then we could prove how well women can do in sports. Why do we have separate women and men’s leagues? We should require each team to play with half women and let each team be equally balanced. I think they’d be surprised at how strong us girls are.
Good luck, Anica! May you be the first woman in the NFL!
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May 12th, 2006 at 10:03 am
Let her go to womens football and leave NFL to the men
May 12th, 2006 at 10:06 am
It’s about time that people like Sheldon learned that women can be as tough and strong as men. Segregating us just harms the NFL. There are great athletes out there that aren’t allowed to play because they don’t have penises. The NFL is worse because of it.
May 12th, 2006 at 10:46 am
How do you figure that? The woen have their own sports and the men have theirs. What is so hard to understand? you don’t have sexual harassment or discrimination.
May 12th, 2006 at 10:49 am
The same arguments were used when they used to segregate sports by race. If they hadn’t integrated sports, great athletes like Michael Jordan would have never gotten the recognition that they deserve. Bigots like you may never learn, but once all sports are integrated, the great women athletes will get the recognition that they deserve.
May 12th, 2006 at 10:49 am
Womens football!
May 12th, 2006 at 10:55 am
Are you telling me, you (women)have go in to a mans sport so that you can gain recognition. So you still need mans approval. Thats funny
May 12th, 2006 at 10:58 am
You’re mistaken. We don’t need man’s approval. We need equal opportunity at corporate sponsorship. Network television doesn’t give equal time to both leagues. If the sport was integrated and players were chosen based on skill and ability alone, then women would have a fair chance at the big bucks that the NFL has to offer.
Denying women this opportunity merely because they don’t have a penis is bigotry.
May 12th, 2006 at 11:07 am
Well then get women sponsorships.
May 12th, 2006 at 11:18 am
We deserve more. We deserve the same opportunities as men have, not a “separate but equal” opportunity.
It doesn’t look like you’ll ever understand this, Sheldon, but mark my words:
Adding women to the NFL will make the sport BETTER.
May 12th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
Just like adding them to armed forces? and the trouble with sex they are having. Yeah thats a good idea more abortions, giving way to more judgement from GOD. Its bad enough that President Bush went against Israel. Get men and women in their own sports and we will have no problems.
May 13th, 2006 at 6:52 am
Ok Sheldon, now you just went and made yourself sound like a lunatic.
I’m going to argue the same thing but hopefully come across with more intelligence. Women already are allowed to play in male sports – they just haven’t made it. Genetically women are smaller and slower, it’s just a fact of life. Football is probably the sport they are naturally at the largest disadvantage.
If you look at golf, where these things matter less, you see women begining to break into the PGA tour. If the talent is there, these sports leagues won’t pass it up. It’s just a matter of being able to compete, which I honestly don’t believe woman can do for the most part.
May 13th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
Women in football……….OUCH ! I still have to cover my eyes to watch my son play. Best of luck women, football is a brutal sport.
May 14th, 2006 at 12:22 pm
I wouldn’t have called it a heated arguement, We didn’t call each other names or threaten each other. I just stated to my opposition to the women taking over mens sports. And the femmales that are going along with it,instead of standing up to the injustice that the females are allowed to get away with. Thats all