Are You Ready For Some Lingerie Football?

Lingerie Football League?LFL WebsiteHow come I never heard of this before today?*
Team members of the Chicago Bliss without helmets and pads.This certainly gives new meaning to "tight ends" and "wide receivers."
What would you rather watch during halftime of the Super Bowl - a geriatric rocker or gorgeous supermodels playing football in lingerie?

Lingerie Football League Model Athletes, Sexy Lingerie Fashion Show, Musical Performances, a Shocking Moment and Celebrities Are All Part of the Second Annual Super Bowl Halftime Alternative, Girls Of Lingerie Bowl: Halftime Challenge

Horizon Productions, Inc. and Pay-Per-View distributors including DirecTV, DISH Network, TVN Entertainment, Bell ExpressVU, Viewer's Choice Canada amongst others will once again team to broadcast the highly anticipated Super Bowl halftime alternative, Girls of Lingerie Bowl: Halftime Challenge.

The following (except for my italicized asides) are excerpts from a 2005 article about this all-female football league.

Last year's Lingerie Bowl broadcast was the most talked about event leading up to Super Bowl XXXVIII. In fact, industry insiders and several media outlets reported that the Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" was a direct result of the NFL, MTV and CBS wanting to compete with the Lingerie Bowl's national media attention.

I always suspected that Jackson's wardrobe malfunction was a carefully choreographed part of her act with Justin Timberlake. Who Knew it was staged to keep viewers, especially males, from flocking to pay-for-view outlets to watch the Lingerie Football League championship? (As for me, I was completely unaware of the existence of the LFL.*)

Los Angeles Times' TJ Simers said, "Who knew the lengths the NFL would go to sabotage the Lingerie Bowl" and New York Daily News' Mike Raissmann added, "What the NFL did was fight salaciousness with salaciousness." Last year's overall success established the halftime alternative as a staple of Super Bowl Sunday festivities as well as becoming part of American POP culture.

This 2005 broadcast promises a 2 hour sports and entertainment extravaganza, featuring model athletes from all four Lingerie Football League teams (without their shoulder pads and helmets, JUST LINGERIE), a sexy lingerie fashion show, celebrities and a SHOCKING MOMENT that will be the absolute talk at the water-cooler on Monday morning.

"Our team will produce a halftime alternative that will have our viewers in sensory overload. You will not want to miss a minute of this display of Skill & Skin," said Mitch Mortaza, Creator & Executive Producer.

The Lingerie Football League currently includes 2004 LFL Champion Los Angeles Temptation, Dallas Desire, New York Euphoria and Chicago Bliss. In 2005 Horizon Productions will announce the addition of San Francisco Heart, Las Vegas Sin, Atlanta Steam and Miami Caliente. The eight teams will begin seasonal play in Summer 2007. Each season the leagues playoffs will be held opposite the NFL playoff season and culminate with the top two teams competing in the Lingerie Bowl opposite the Super Bowl halftime show.

Horizon Productions, founded in 2003, is a full-service, Hollywood-based entertainment company engaged in the development of alternative film and television, as well as talent packaging, event production and media/sponsorship management.

*Sunday morning while I was remote-surfing the TV, little did I know that the A&E network would be sending me on an Internet surfing excursion.

They had a feature on of all things, the Lingerie Football League. I had never heard of it! The doldrums of the DST-induced time change quickly faded. The TV had my undivided attention!

I found it interesting, not just because the women were wearing helmets and pads over what was essentially their underwear, but that there was some vicious tackles and hitting taking place on the field.

Although the censors covered the vitals, there were some (un?)-expected wardrobe malfunctions as the players tops and bottoms were pulled at and yanked during tackles. Of course there would be no such censorship on the pay-for-view broadcasts.

For the record, as for myself, I would not shell out my money to watch this affront to real football. Now, if it were free - well, that would be an entirely different matter, wouldn't it?

There was one other thing that I noticed while watching the A&E segment and afterwards a video on the league's site when I was googling the subject:

Because of all that "excessive" padding the players were wearing, I found myself paying a lot of attention to the referees (see last pic).

No.1284