Women are fashionable football fans

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For decades the NFL might as well have stood for No Fashions for Ladies.

Until just a couple years ago, if a woman wanted official gear, her only choices were gigantic jerseys made for men shaped like refrigerators.

But earlier this year Reebok, the official outfitter of the NFL, launched a full line of football clothes and accessories designed exclusively for women.

The “Be a Woman, Be a Fan” campaign is but one example of how women are increasing their profile in the formerly male-dominated league.

When a recent Harris poll asked women to name their favorite spectator sport, NFL football not only finished first with 30 percent but topped the totals of the next three sports (baseball, NASCAR and the NBA) combined. Of the league’s 50 million “avid” fans, 30 percent, or 15 million, are women, league research shows. And more than 45 million women watch NFL games on TV each weekend.

Peter Roby, director of the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University in Boston, said he thought the increasing number of female fans helped explain football’s growing popularity.

“The thing that has contributed in the last 20 years to the NFL’s growth is the number of females who are passionate about football,” he said. “It seems to me that the females are as passionate as the men.”

NFL employees

Many women also now work for the NFL. Today, NFL teams employ 52 female executives at the vice president level or above. Then there are NFL sideline reporters. From Michelle Tafoya and Andrea Kramer to Suzy Kolber and Pam Oliver, they’re virtually all women.

And for the last two years, when NBC looked for a singer to belt out the jaunty opening number for its Sunday “Football Night in America” telecast, it didn’t pick a man. Last year it selected Pink; this year it’s Faith Hill.

Marti Barletta, author of “Marketing to Women” and founder of the TrendSight Group, a consulting firm based in Winnetka, Ill., said other major sports would do well to learn from the NFL’s example.

“I think it’s essential for the big sports to be making friends with women, because women buy the majority of sports merchandise,” she said. “So if nothing else, it’s just good business.”

Which brings us back to fashion. Reebok’s female-focused fashions — expanding on a trend that started several years ago with more pink offerings — borrow their style from today’s street wear, inspired by throwback designs from the ’80s. Boxy jerseys have been replaced by tapered satin and varsity-style baseball shirts and jackets. Many of the pieces feature glitter or rhinestones.