(girl yelps)
(rock music)
- Today we are at Legends Football League tryouts,
formerly known as the Lingerie Football League.
- I know very little about this league.
All I know is they're tough, they wear lingerie kind of,
and that's it, that's all I know.
- I watched some videos before today
and they look so badass, they are like
throwing people across the field, taking people out.
Honestly, it looks way more intense
than anything I've seen happen in the NFL.
- I think I'm a little bit torn about how I feel
because these women are such amazing athletes.
I'm just confused about the outfits.
- Today I'm hoping to gain a new perspective
on what it's like to play a tackle sport
of this intensity while wearing something very revealing.
(shouts)
- Football.
(hip hop music)
- The girls have gone through a
lot of different drills right now.
They're really trying to see can they catch,
how are their routes, do they listen, are they aggressive?
And we're really trying to get the girls
in a position where we can see if they fit into the team.
- This is a smash mouth violent game.
We have to be about the level of men.
In order to be taken seriously in this league,
we have to be able to play at that level.
The uniforms, I got no control over that,
but hey, the game is still the same.
We still play hard.
- There is no position that is guaranteed.
I don't care if you're a returner
or you're brand new, earn your spot today.
- It was a lot more skill involved in this try out.
We had to practice offense and defense.
- Then we got into more of the trials.
We had to do a sprint, we had to handle the ball.
(screams)
- [Tui] Nice catch, but there's no screaming.
- At first in the try outs, when the coaches
were yelling at me when I made a mistake,
I took it a little bit personally,
but then I realized wow these coaches
are really taking this sport seriously.
- So I went into this knowing that these girls are very
good athletes, but still confused about the uniforms,
so I wanted to talk to the girls to
understand more about that side of things.
- We are the Los Angeles Temptation.
Our uniforms are very similar to what
a beach volleyball player would wear except we add the
element of elbow pads, knee pads and our shoulder pads.
If you'd like, I can actually show you what they look like.
Do you guys wanna see it?
- Yeah.
- Totally.
- These are our tops, the front
and then the back, hockey style helmets.
These are our bottoms, one size fits most.
- Those look so tiny.
- I knew that the uniform was going to be pretty revealing,
but I didn't expect it to be that revealing.
- What do the networks do about nip slips?
- Yeah, so every girl is supposed
to go out there with pasties.
- But it happens, and when it happens you just keep playing.
You're about to score a touchdown,
you're not really worried about anything
popping out, you just keep running.
- It was clear that they were not caring
about how they looked when they were playing the sport.
- Do you feel like the stigma of the lingerie
gets in the way of the athleticism sometimes?
- I always tell people, "Go to a game."
You know, generally when I show people a clip,
they're like, "Wow you guys are super athletic."
- I mean, playing soccer, if you showed up
on the soccer field with makeup,
it's kind of like, "Who you trying to impress?"
That's the best part of the LFL
is that it's okay to be beautiful
but it's also okay to be a badass out there.
- This is not a full-time job,
like you guys all have full-time jobs
and lives outside of football.
- Yeah, absolutely.
- That's where the division has been between me and women.
If women got compensated as much as the men,
then obviously we would play soccer, we would play football,
and so for us we do it because we love it.
- I think for a lot of these women,
they want to play this sport at the highest caliber and this
league happens to be the league with the most exposure.
- A lot of the women on the team are moms,
full-time career women, I think it was just
another testament to how you can be
at the top level of your sport as a woman
and you still have to work another job,
you're still not compensated fairly or equally.
- A lot of the women that we talked to,
they're there for the game, they're there for the sport
and you can hear it in their voice.
- My name's Ogochukwu, all my friends call me Emma.
I play football and flag football
and I run track at Basic High School
and I drove all the way out to Los Angeles
to try out for L.A. Temptation.
- I think Emma is probably the coolest
girl that I have ever met.
- You played football in high school?
- Yes.
- Did you have a girls' team or you played with the guys?
- I played on the boys' and the girls' team.
We have flag football and we have a tackle football team.
- And you played on both?
- Yes.
- That's crazy.
- Very fun.
- You're so cool.
- Like half the time, the other team doesn't know.
- It was very fun.
- To you have that type of bravery
to be the only woman in your team or your sport,
and hold your own, it is amazing.
- Yeah, it's my first time trying out.
I just really want to be a part of it.
I ran track, I play basketball,
but I'm ready to take it to the next level.
- Every woman that we talked to was kind of just like,
"I'm here to play the game, I'm here to be
an athlete, the uniform is what it is."
- I think they're dope.
I mean think about it, these are athletic women
with athletic bodies and I think that
it's cool to show it off.
For girls like me, it's always about
the sport, no matter what I'm wearing.
I'm still gonna be the same athlete,
same skill sets, I'm just trying to get better.
- I really don't think the uniform should
really define what these women are doing out here.
- Wearing fewer clothing items will
definitely draw more eyes, but I wonder if that
act draws attention to the wrong part of the sport.
- On the car ride home, I found myself thinking
it's not just about this league,
it's about female athletes in general.
If women's' volleyball decided to wear
tank tops and a pair of shorts,
would less people watch them in the Olympics?
Are we doing this as a necessary evil
to get eyes on these amazing athletes?
I don't know guys, I have no fucking idea
how I feel about this league.
I think at the end of the day these
women are powerful, strong athletes
and as long as that's being showcased,
then honestly, what they're wearing is kind of secondary.
- If you do want to try out, you shouldn't
hold any shame in wanting to.
These women train really hard,
they work really hard and they could probably kick your ass.
- I think this league is a great thing,
but I do think that sexism in sports is
a conversation that all female athletes should be having.
If every woman out there who considers themselves
an athlete fully embraces that side of themselves
and isn't afraid to be the best athlete they can,
that's a happy ending.
(slow-tempo rock music)