MHP athlete Alisha Neville expects to be starting center for the Philadelphia Passion, the city’s entry in the Legends Football League. Photo by Roe Person.

The Lingerie Football League admittedly was a gimmick, starting in 2003 as a goof at halftime of the Super Bowl. The “Lingerie Bowl” was created to attract guys at Super Bowl parties around the country to fork over some cash to watch hot scantily-clad women wearing panty-hose tackle each other.

An indoor league formed in 2009, but declining interest and credibility led founder Mitchell S. Mortaza to change his creation to the “Legends Football League” (still LFL), ditching the lingerie and changing its slogan from “True Fantasy Football” to “Women of the Gridiron.”

While the players will still be largely based on looks, ability is now just as important to the organizers.

“The girls they are getting involved are actual athletes,” said Alisha Neville, a MHP athlete who competes in triathlons. “They played collegiate sports, they’ve played sports like field hockey and lacrosse, so they’ve played some rough sports.”

Neville expects to be a starter on Philadelphia’s entry in the LFL, the Passion. Neville, who lives in Mt. Laurel, NJ and is a professional trainer and competitor, says for athletic women who like to compete this is a great opportunity.

“Except for some organized gym stuff at a sports complex, there isn’t a lot out there for girls unless you go on to play at the Olympic Level,” said Neville, who is a single mom with two children: Alivia, 11 and Ethan 8. “I got involved because they lost the lingerie part and I could actually be okay with telling my parents that I was playing football and it wasn’t running around wearing lingerie. They got rid of a lot of the girlie sexy accessories like the choker, the garter belt and these things. We play in short-shorts, sport bra and pads.”

The Passion’s home opener is listed on the league website as June 15, 2013 at PPL Park at 8:00 PM. According to head coach Chandler Brown, the Passion are one of four teams that play outdoors. The field is set up as a 50-yard playing are and is still 7-on-7 like the other eight LFL teams that play in NHL/NBA arenas.

For Neville, trying a new sport is like a typical day in Groton, New York (just North of Ithaca) where she lived and played with two sets of siblings created by her biological parents.

“I grew up with my mom Joanne and her husband Keith most of the time,” said Neville, the oldest of four children in her mom’s house, she also has three brothers who live with her biological father.
“We were always playing, building forts or being outside running in the cornfields playing kick ball, there was a basketball court in the driveway so we were always outside doing some kind of sport.”

Neville played softball and soccer in the Home School Leagues of Central New York before moving to New Jersey where she currently raises her two children. Neville said she has tried a number of competitions but enjoyed training to compete in different disciplines.

“I’m a tri-athlete first,” Neville said. “Most of my training is built around running, swimming and cycling. I tried some other things, long distance runs, 5K, the Broad Street Run, those kinds of things. It just seemed like the discipline of the three sports and doing them together was a step in the right direction. I really enjoyed the competition, I loved the training, the high intensity it’s very taxing and very demanding and I like that as well.”

Neville, who grew up a Cowboys fans but admits the rest of the NFC East is growing on her, says playing real football in front of thousands of fans, even though she has never played the sport, was a challenge she could not turn down on several levels even if the media that will judge the LFL product with a cynical eye.

Neville, who says her position has not been defined her coaches yet but expects to play center, admits if she does not get up to speed with technique and strategy, all her elite level of athleticism and training will not mean much. “I’m going to get smoked every single time go out,” she said.

And how will Neville react to the public scrutiny of a product that has been labeled a gimmick in the past?

“I’m ready for that,” Neville, 31, said. “I wake up every morning having to re-adjust to a focus of where I’m going (to play) no matter what the circumstances are. I am going to wake up every morning having to put those situations into the back of my mind and say this is the way I am going to play. I am going to keep my focus because this is what I was trained to do. Everything else that comes along is not going to sway me. I will perform under pressure.”

Neville and many of her teammates are training and learning the nuances and techniques of the sport of football at “7 Deuce Sports” located in Medford, NJ. The 7,000 sq. ft. facility owned and run by former Eagles Pro Bowl offensive tackle Tra Thomas.

Thomas said he is impressed with the Passion players, especially Neville.

“The (Passion) players come in for strength and condition several days a week to get ready for the upcoming season, usually for about an hour and a half each time,” Thomas told Footballstories. “I had not watched much of the league until they started training here. I did research on the players and watched some video and they are really true athletes. Alisha is a great athlete and is really fierce with her training and is one of the players who was a leader in the area of training from the start.
“She does not have the football background some of the other players do so she has been coming extra days to educate herself on how to play offensive and defensive line in football,” Thomas continued. “I believe the league can really grow if the ladies push themselves to continually get better.”

Neville said she grew up watching NFL football from a girl’s perspective. “I just saw moving piles of people,” she said. “Now that I am in the game and working and playing, it’s starting to make sense it’s started to be more of like a chess match than I ever thought it was before.”

But the pressure of learning a new sport, the training and thoughts of how well this new sport will be received is nothing compared to what she and millions of single mothers handle every day.

“My greatest success is my kids,” Neville said. “The real reasons I got involved with the Passion and playing were one, it’s going to be fun. The other reason is this is a platform to reach other people about getting excited about doing something. I want get young people exercise…and if I can be an example to somebody who has a busy schedule, I work full time, I have two kids, and I have an amazing support system in place…I didn’t for a long time and I was still doing it on my own. If I can be inspirational and motivational for other women who want to do something and just don’t know where to go, or what to do, I think this can be an outreach to them to let them see you can do other things in life even as a single mother. I want them to see more, dream more and get out and have fun.”

Email Al Thompson at the.magazine@footballstories.com