In the Waltonian’s “On the Sideline: Football” article, which appeared in the January 30th edition, it was stated that football is the most male-dominated sport. Although football is a heavily male-dominated sport, it seems to me that the many girls who understand its complexities were not acknowledged in this article.
I don’t know what some girls would do if it were not explained how a coin toss works, what defense means or that the point of football is moving the ball down the field. I’m sure the article saved some girls from confusion during the Super Bowl, but many of us already knew just as much as some of the guys watching.
It’s quite interesting how many girls out there looked at the recent article on football and said to themselves, “No really? That’s what a coin toss is? Because I honestly didn’t know.”
Then they probably went on to show the article to their other girl friends, who were not busy working on their “cart-wheeling and pirouetting skills” and pointed out some details of football the article had failed to mention.
Some girls were disappointed that there wasn’t anything in the article about red-zones, or the wedge, what happens when a team gets a safety or even that a safety is different from the position of safety. They commented on how they wished the article explained what a blitz, shotgun and a pocket are. Oh, but good thing the intricacies of the coin toss were explained. All this missing information could have been helpful when those girls proceeded to explain to their “manly boyfriends” what a 3-4 or a 4-3 formation or a nickel and dime is. That’s right; some girls know more than guys.
What’s interesting is that lots of girls don’t learn about football from their boyfriends, or even males for that matter. A lot of girls learn from their moms, and its also entirely possible to learn on your own. Although fathers can be a good source of football knowledge, there are other ways of learning.
Apparently not all women have received the memo that they’re not supposed to know about football. Actually, an entire women’s professional football league was formed in 1974. And approximately 80 or more girls on this very campus have either failed to receive this memo or completely ignored it altogether. These girls refuse to just watch football – they play football.
Eastern’s Powder Puff football league runs an 8 week season followed by a play-off tournament and a Super Bowl game each fall semester. This year, the game went into a double overtime. A sissy game of football? I think not.