The Lingerie Football League

Some things can only happen in America, said James Shepherd in Britain's Chester Chronicle. Case in point: On Sept. 4, the 10-team Lingerie Football League will launch its first season with a game between the Miami Caliente and the Chicago Bliss. The seven-woman teams will play in short shorts, bikini tops, shoulder pads, and helmets.

It's provocative, said Jim Moore in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, but it's also good business. Games between scantily clad women have been a Super Bowl half-time staple on pay-per-view since 2004. The formula works because "men are dogs," but in case there's not enough "exposed flesh" on the field to lure in spectators, the Seattle Mist will have a dance team on the sidelines.

If the tryouts for the Denver team, the Dream, are any indication, said Joe Tone in the Denver Westword, there will be plenty of talented athletes on the field. The coach, "a deadly serious fellow," even gave a speech to his assistants in which he told them to evaluate players on their abilities and not their looks. He must not understand "the appeal of women playing football in their underwear."

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