It was a cold and rainy October night at Tremper High School’s Anderson Field in Kenosha, but fans with plastic ponchos over their camouflage jackets waited in a long line for brats, and the home bleachers were filled with families. Knit Packers caps were de rigueur, though up near the top of the stands, a row of men wore hard hats emblazoned with the home team’s logo. They danced an ugly, irregular YMCA, pausing to dip various snacks into cups of warm cheese.
The Riveters, by far the winningest pro football team in the Chicago area this year, are women. More specifically, they’re the National Conference champions of the Women’s Professional Football League, and this Saturday, November 9, they’ll take on the Houston Energy in Dallas for the national title. But football fans won’t be able to watch the game on TV–in fact, many still don’t even know the league exists.
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The tour in turn generated sufficient media attention and corporate sponsorship–Coca-Cola and Nextel were early supporters–to allow the formation of an 11-team league with franchises spread across the country, from Los Angeles to New England. In 2000 the NFL brought WPFL players to Atlanta for a short exhibition game prior to Super Bowl XXXIV, and the following year invited the ladies to do it again in Tampa. Since those appearances, a few WPFL franchises have established loose affiliations with nearby NFL teams–members of the New England Storm, for instance, have attended clinics and promotional events alongside members of the Patriots.
But the league doesn’t have financial support from the NFL the way the WNBA does from the NBA. The annual operating budgets for WPFL franchises are often less than $100,000; by comparison, WNBA teams will spend $12 million just on player salaries this year, and the NFL salary cap allows each franchise a $71 million payroll. Still, given its relative stability and geographic reach, the WPFL has the potential to be the biggest success story in women’s football so far. And the Riveters, a new franchise this year, have the potential to be one of the most successful teams in the league’s short history.
“I’ve approached this just like coaching a guys’ team,” he says. “At first our practices were all about conditioning. We’d run. We toughened them.” The Riveters have practiced at least three times a week since May, and the sessions often exceed three hours. Though early practices were dominated by sprints and conditioning drills, recently the team’s been focused on the repetition and execution of key plays and formations.
“When I graduated, I knew there was a women’s pro football team in Minnesota,” says McCallum. “I thought about moving up there, but I came back home instead. I knew that when women’s football came to Chicago, I’d do whatever it took to play.”
In just six months, the Riveters have evolved into a stylish and disciplined unit. Entering their final regular-season game on October 12 against the Missouri Prowlers, an expansion team based in Springfield, they were 9-0 and excited at the prospect of finishing their season undefeated. The home bleachers were bustling despite the frigid weather, and the women quickly lit up the field. Their second play from scrimmage was a 55-yard touchdown, run to the wide side by running back Stephanie Ledvina. Their third play was a frantic 61-yard cut-back run by VanCuick.
