http://active.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/72061418.jpgAccording to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, football, long considered to be the ultimate guy sport, appears to be getting a gender infusion. The National Football League has compiled some notable
facts about women and football:
1) In 1996, a girls-only division was made available for participants in the Gatorade Punt, Pass & Kick competition. About 125,000 of the 500,000 participants that year were girls. By 2000, the number of girls participating in the contest had risen to more than 1 million. The NFL Gatorade Punt, Pass and Kick program creates lively and engaging competition for boys and girls ages 8 -15 to compete separately against their peers in punting, passing and place kicking skills.
2) More than 30 million women watch football on televisions on an average weekend.
3) Game-day attendance is 40 percent female, with more than 375,000 women attending games on an average weekend.
4) Over 100,000 girls participate in local flag football leagues sponsored by the NFL.
Perhaps the phrase "football widow" is on the way out as more and more females are becoming interested and knowledgable in the sport of football.
(Photo provided by Getty Images, taken by Jonathan Daniel)
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