Since I've covered women's tackle football for most of three years—first as a player/writer and later just as a reporter—I've been fixated on the political implications of women's tackle football, and the outright I'll-do-what-I-want dignity of the thing.

It's thousands of woman athletes going to great financial and logistical and physical lengths to participate in an American sport they've fallen in love with on TV but been shut out of in real life. And doing so quietly and without much fanfair, and keeping it up for a dozen years and more even though the stands are still mostly filled with friends and family.

Can you imagine a more credible statement than that? But for the most part, the players and coaches I've interviewed wouldn't give me the satisfaction of citing feminism as any kind of motive for playing football. Mostly because feminism isn't a motive for playing. Playing is the only motivation. (These are jocks we're talking about.)

But the one non-football issue that can get these women cranked up—or at least cracking wise—is the Lingerie Football League. Get these women confused with the scantily clad … well, I'll let them speak for themselves.

Chicago Force tryouts are this Saturday. (Are you woman enough?)