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Lyndsey D'Arcangelo

Lyndsey D'Arcangelo Profile Photo

Lyndsey D'Arcangelo writes about Women's College Basketball and the WNBA for The Athletic WBB and Just Women's Sports. Her first nonfiction book, Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women's Football League is available now.

The National Women's Football League
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March 21, 2022

The National Women's Football League

In 1967, a Cleveland talent agent named Sid Friedman decided to capitalize on the popularity of football in the rust belt by launching a women’s football league, which he envisioned as entertainment, complete with mini-skirts and tear-away jerseys. The women he recruited had other ideas, and soon they were playing competitive tackle football, not in skirts but in football uniforms. In 1974, the owners of several teams around the country, some from Friedman’s WPFL and some independent of it, form...