Lingerie football puts athletic, aesthetic assets on display

Lingerie Football League Founder and Chairman Mitchell Mortaza says fans attending Friday's Chicago Bliss opener at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates will see players from all walks of life, including cocktail waitresses but also doctors and lawyers.

"These are educated women. These are confident women," he said. "These are not strippers."

But even he'd admit the players' smarts are not the attributes likely to draw at least 2,000 people to the league's inaugural game against the Miami Caliente. Or that they'll be judging the players' aesthetic assets above their cerebral or even athletic ones.

The 10-team league starts its 20-week season, with each team playing four games. The league is an offshoot of the Lingerie Bowl, a pay-per-view TV event that has aired during Super Bowl halftimes. The women play seven-on-seven full-contact, tackle football in uniforms resembling bikinis.

Whether this is the image Hoffman Estates should be seeking - or whether that's even a question in this day and age - is debatable.

"I think that's a very good question for all the (local officials) concerned," said Glenda Bailey-Mershon, past president of the National Organization for Women's Illinois chapter.

Now retired and living in Florida, the former Palatine resident said the whole debate gives her a sense of déjà vu.

In 1995, "we had the same conversation with Schaumburg and Hoffman Estates when they were thinking about putting in Hooters," she said. "They followed the bucks then, I suspect they'll do the same this time, too."

And the Sears Centre does need the money, as it suffered a $512,000 operating loss last year and continues to struggle with bookings. The Bliss has only two home dates scheduled. If the season goes well, it could expand to four home dates. That doesn't exactly provide a steady stream of revenue for the arena, though the Bliss has sold more tickets than any of the year's remaining Sears Centre events.

Hoffman Estates Chamber President Cheri Sisson admits she's a mildly conflicted about the whole thing. She's glad to see the Sears Centre trying something new to attract consumers into the village. But she wonders why these athletes can't just wear pants.

"I think I'm 99 percent really excited about it," Sisson said.

Linda Scheck, the village's tourism and business retention coordinator, was more game, joking, "If I had a body like that, I would be wearing spandex to the Jewel."

The Bliss isn't the only women's football team in Chicago. The Force, of the Independent Women's Football League, plays outdoors at Naperville's North Central College, wearing regular uniforms.

Bailey-Mershon, the former Illinois NOW president, was quick to point out she wasn't passing judgment.

"I try to make a point of not criticizing women for the choices they make," she said. "It's my business to make sure these women have choices."

Both she and league officials compared the Bliss attire to beach volleyball players' - though Bailey-Mershon noted that doesn't make it right. There's also the negative effect it can on young boys.

"We are surrounding by sexualization, but not just that of females, but of male bodies as well," she said.

Sisson pointed out that the uniforms are more like swimwear, with the world "lingerie" used as a marketing term to draw interest. With the sagging economy, marketers need something to grab a customer's attention, she said.

Bliss captain and cornerback Danielle Moinet said her mom in North Carolina is more concerned that she'll injure herself than anything else. Moinet said making a tackle is "incredibly empowering."

"When Jessica Simpson came out and made it cool to be a bimbo, especially because I'm blonde, I hated it," Moinet said.

She's eager to show fans it really is full-contact football, despite the lack of protection from turf burn.

Scheck also talked about defying stereotypes, as Moinet and her teammates are earning money as professional athletes. Mortaza, the league founder, said he just wants to prove these women are real athletes.

"They take the game seriously," he said. "They've been training more than ever before."

Bailey-Mershon reasons the league won't make a ripple either way in the larger issue of women's rights.

"I think it's more significant that Diane Sawyer is anchor for ABC News and two of the three major networks have women," she said. "In the long term, looking at women, I doubt the Lingerie Football League is going to matter very much."

<p class="factboxheadblack">How to catch lingerie football</p> <p class="News">• Tickets for the Chicago Bliss game, which starts at 9 p.m. Friday at the Sears Centre, just north of I-90 off Route 59, are $8-$63, available through ticketmaster.com or searscentre.com for details.</p> <p class="News">• The games can also be on the Web for $7.95 for a single game or $125 for a season pass. Check lflus.com.</p>