The coaches rant and rave on the sidelines, barking out profanity-filled commands. The quarterback talks X’s and O’s with ease and admits to being a “big fan of the spread offense,” carefully mixing an aerial and ground attack.
Oh, yeah, quarterback Sami Grisafe and the rest of her Chicago Force teammates are all females, part of the 32-team Independent Woman’s Football League (IWFL), with such tackle-football teams as the Seattle Majestics, Tucson Monsoon, Montreal Blitz and New York Sharks. The Chicago team draws 500 to 600 per game.
“Everyone on the team works real hard, makes a lot of sacrifices, gives it their all, both physically and mentally. It just happens to be a female [instead of] a male team,” said Grisafe, 22. “Actually, I would say there’s probably more commitment and love of the game” on the Force than on male-dominated teams.
That’s because, she said, though the 4-year-old Force carries a “pro football” tag, the players have day jobs, and each is required to pay $800 to play.
A Force rookie, Grisafe is one of the top players on the team. After all, she’s the only one with varsity playing experience at the high school level. Yep, Grisafe played four downs as a sophomore for Redlands High School during the fourth quarter of a win in 2000, thus becoming the first female quarterback at a Division 1 school, which is the largest classification in California.
And it was a Redlands win over their archrival, Redlands East Valley.
“I started playing football when I was 10 years old, and I remember then going to high school games with my mom,” Grisafe said. “And I remember telling her, ‘One day I’m going to run out onto that stadium, and I’m going to play on that field.'”
And that she did, six years later.
Some of the team’s seniors in 2000 started chanting her name, and quickly the crowd joined in.
“It was amazing, a dream come true,” she said. “When the coach called me over and said I was going in, my adrenaline shot up; I was overcome.
“The guys on the team were very supportive of me.
“It was unreal.”
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The Chicago Force plays its final regular-season game at 3 p.m. Saturday against the Detroit Demolition at North Park University, at Foster and Albany Avenues in Chicago.
