The players from the Los Angeles Temptation know why you’re here. You were drawn in by the chance to see attractive women bouncing around a field trying to play football.
But they have a message for you, too: This ain’t the lingerie league you think it is.
The Temptation will play the first of two home games in the newly rebranded Legends Football League on Saturday at Citizens Business Bank Arena against the Seattle Mist. And the players hope that once you see them play, you’ll forget about what they’re wearing and focus on how they’re playing.
Want to know how serious these women are at their football? Check out the YouTube clip (attached to this story) from the Temptation’s last game of quarterback Ashley Salerno, who grew up in Chino Hills and went to Cal Poly Pomona.
In other words, the league has come a long way from when it was started after a Super Bowl hafltime sideshow filled with models.
“The girls you had coming out for the first season probably won’t be the same ones (trying out) now,” said Monique Gaxiola, a four-year veteran of the league. “The game of football (in the LFL) really has progressed. A lot of the girls know what they’re doing out there, and that’s what the big difference is now. We need girls to understand what they’re doing out there — not even just being athletic, but you all need to understand the game of football and how physically demanding it is to the body. And you’ve got to look good doing it.”
It’s that last thing that the players know draws in curious spectators. And the players who spoke Thursday know that it’s not all about football ability, but the entire package.
“I’ve always been super athletic,” said Natalie Jahnke, an University of La Verne graduate who is from Rancho Cucamonga. “And I trained at an MMA gym, and was going to go into boxing when I found the LFL, and saw OK, I’m able to use the best of my (athletic) abilities and this thing,” gesturing to her body, “right now as opposed to later in life, and also be an athlete. So it takes the best of both worlds, being that athletic girl, and also being what your mom wanted to conform me to in that frilly lace and bring this product together.”
It helps that many of the women playing in the league come from athletic backgrounds. Jahnke (pronounced Yawn-KEY) played volleyball for the Leos. Australian Chloe Butler comes from a rugby background, and hopes to represent her country at the 2016 Olympics in the sport. And Fontana’s Ogom Chijindu played soccer in college and had a chance to play professionally, but the women’s league at the time folded.
“For a lot of women, playing sports, it’s like where do we go after we’re not ready to hang our cleats up?” Chijindu said. “We’re not ready to say I’m done with sports. I don’t want to start a family right away. I’m still competitive, where do I compete? With the LFL, it gave me an opportunity to say, ‘Hey, I can still compete at a high level, and do it better than most people out there.’ ”
More than 200 women tried out for this year’s Temptation squad, and it was whittled down to the 20-player roster — 14 of whom are on the active roster. They practice three times a week, with many of them also holding down regular jobs.
The league’s name change was one that the players have embraced with open arms.
“I am very proud of it, and I know teammates are very proud to designate sexy belongs in this sport,” Jahnke said. “No longer is it first priority, it falls down the list. Maybe the uniforms, yes, still get you there, but the football is going to keep you there.”
And the change is showing in other ways, such as securing practice facilities, said the team’s coach, Eddie Chan.
“We’d have to sign waivers, and the waivers said, in the past, Lingerie Football League,” Chan said. “Nobody really wants you at the place just because of the connotation. What’s happened now, and this is everywhere we’ve been, they see us practice, and they realize, because their helmets on, they have pads on, they’re really athletic women who really know how to play the game of football. The perception is changing. We hope it changes even quicker than it has. But it’s absolutely changing.”
In the meantime, they’ll keep playing. The Temptation will play two games at the Ontario arena this season. And they hope they gather new fans, no matter what they’re wearing.
“We love this game regardless of the uniforms we play in,” Jahnke said.
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