This brings a new meaning to "fantasy football."
In the tunnels beneath the stadium, the locker room and rituals of the Baltimore Charm -- one of this year's expansion teams in the weird and wonderful Lingerie Football League -- offered a whole new version of pregame festivities.
For one, the players in the locker room are buxom young women wearing little more than René Rofé lingerie (tight-tight boy shorts, fringe-cut sports bras), shoulder pads, garters and small helmets with clear plastic visors across the face.
Plus this:
"The good-looking athletes, particularly in women's sports, do much better [financially] than the rest," he says. "Look at [NASCAR's] Danica Patrick, [softball's] Jennie Finch and [volleyball's] Gabrielle Reece. What we wanted to create was a league of Danica Patricks."
The beauty premium in this case is driven by the fact that men like to watch pretty women. Yup, there's a market for that (even if some in university and activist circles may not want to admit it). Some may call it exploitation (this is mentioned in the article on the second page), but I don't see how anyone can say that women who voluntarily join the league and who know what they're getting into can be "exploited."
Tyler Cowen quips that this is "a waste of good lingerie." Really?
The first year was turbulent, yes, with two franchises not making it. At least one game was canceled, some coaches were dismissed (Mortaza cites a problem of dating players) and some players quit, but Mortaza said the sexiest show on turf ended its initial season in the black by "six figures."
"The NFL is projecting their lowest attendance in years, the San Diego Chargers have their first blackout since 1982," Mortaza says. "This brand is only 11 months old and got on national television two weeks ago. We weren't projecting that we'd make money until our third year. Instead, we made money our first year and should double that this season."
That sounds like an efficient use of resources to me.