Female football fans

Sunday in the NY Times Magazine I read another of those articles about wives who can’t understand their husbands’ obsession with football. I’m sure this is fairly common, but in my experience it’s my girlfriends who are the hardcore fans.

I once knew a woman who wore a watch that showed the current scores of all major league baseball games being played (her husband hated sports). A friend of mine got DIRECTV so she can watch every NFL game on Sundays during football season and any nationally televised game in baseball season. Yesterday I called another friend and happened to get her husband on the phone; he said his wife has sports radio on in the house day and night.

So much for football widows. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports: “On an average weekend, 375,000 women attend NFL games…and the league estimates its fan base at 60 percent men, 40 percent women.”

I enjoy watching sports, especially at the end of the season when it gets exciting. I like going to ballgame once or twice a year at Fenway. But I generally won’t rearrange my schedule to watch a game unless it’s a big one, like the Patriots’ last couple of games and of course the upcoming Super Bowl. So I asked my girlfriends about what they love about football or other sports, their viewing habits, etc. I’ll post their interviews in two parts, starting tomorrow.

Meanwhile, check out FemmeFan, a site that calls itself The SportsZone for the Female Sports Junkie. There’s a handy primer on football if you want to learn more about the game, a bunch of tailgate food recipes, and, well, beefcake photos of some athletes. Go Brady!

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