SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
In defense of women’s lingerie football
Nov 4, 2011, 2:27 AM | Updated: Nov 6, 2011, 11:08 am
Update: Mist played in front of a sold-out crowd at ShoWare in Kent Friday night. They lost to the Sin – 28 to 24.
If you look beyond the lingerie and garterbelts, you’ll realize the Seattle Mist play serious football.
I know, it’s hard to ignore the wardrobe. “Difficult” might have been a better word choice for that sentence.
Angela Rypien is a 21-year-old, six-foot-tall quarterback for Seattle’s Lingerie Football League team, the Mist. She admits it was “awkward” the first time her dad saw her in her uniform. Her dad is former WSU Coug star, Redskins Super Bowl MVP quarterback Mark Rypien.
“I didn’t want to see my daughter playing football in, basically, her underwear,” Rypien told ESPN.com. “But she loves it, she’s great at it, and it keeps her healthy. It’s just unfortunate that the lingerie thing is what the league initially has to do to get it off the ground.”
Rypien threw for three touchdowns and no interceptions in her debut game this season. That was a win against the Green Bay Chill. The Mist take on the Las Vegas Sin in their first home game tonight in Kent’s ShoWare Center.
Many of Rypien passes are thrown to LFL All-Star wide receiver Jessica Hopkins. Hopkins, who is a body builder and athletic trainer, does not think lingerie football is demeaning to women.
I watched Hopkins and the rest of the young women at one of their practices in Milton. The coaches were relentless – yelling and swearing. The players were tough – bashing shoulder pads and crashing helmets.
The Mist players think more about the game than their garb. They don’t seem offended by the clothing they have to wear (or not wear) to bring attention to the league.
“There are other sports out there that wear as much as we do or even less, such as beach volleyball,” says Hopkins. “We train hard, we play hard. There will always be people who say something negative so I just brush that aside. It is what it is. If you want to watch it, watch it. If you don’t, don’t. It’s that basic.”
The Seattle Mist last season against San Diego. Photo courtesy Nathan Rupert.
Related: News Chick podcast on women’s sports featuring The Storm’s Lauren Jackson, Soccer star Hope Solo, a women’s tackle football team the Seattle Majestics, and Seattle Times sports columnist Jerry Brewer.
