My freshman year of college, I joined a fantasy football league with a classmate I met in high school. Since I was born and raised in Iowa by a Packer-loving family, I'll admit most of my picks were based on the color of their jerseys. The rest of the league consisted of males who loved to boast about how much they loved football - until the end of the season when I won.
Cue sophomore year, right before classes started. I texted the guy in charge of the first league asking when we were picking teams since the year prior, he said I could join his next league too. He told me he didn't want me in his league and when I asked why, he said he didn't want to lose to a girl again
This is one reason I'm sick and tired of men assuming women don't or can't like football. According to ESPN, 44 percent of American football fans are female. In fact, two of the NFL's most historically successful teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers, have a majority female fan base at 50-60 percent. Research also shows that the Super Bowl has more female viewership than the Oscars, Emmys, and Grammys combined.
"Marketing experts say women are a prized demographic for the NFL because of their value to advertisers," ESPN reported.
Women makeup nearly half of football fans and have brought a massive jump in revenue for the NFL, so why are we still pretending women don't like football? Why are we scoffed at when we say we like the sport? Why do men feel the need to say "Name five players and the coach" when we say we like a specific team?
Maybe it's because everything we know about the sport is from watching instead of playing -- even though there are plenty of male fans who didn't play high school or college football. Maybe it's because the officials at the games are male -- except 2015 brought us our first female NFL referee, Sarah Thomas.
Or maybe, most likely, it's because men don't want to accept that women can enjoy something men have claimed as their own. Sure, plenty of men will gladly accept women in their fantasy football league and share couch space during the game, but too many still scoff at women who say they love the sport.
Come on, guys. It's 2016. We need to stop acting like sports were created solely for men when women can be just as involved and dedicated to something they enjoy. That "something" just happens to be football.
It's not a man's world anymore. It's time to share the beer and pass the wings because women are joining your fan base and there's nothing you can do to stop us.
