They play great defense. They wear purple. And for an added bonus, they?ve got cute players.
So is it any surprise that the Ravens boast one of the largest ? and most vocal ? sections of female fans of any team in the NFL? Guys, if you are surprised, don?t tell the ladies. The 12th man of the Ravens just might be a sophisticated lady who can talk trash with the best of them.
“You do not want me to sit in on a game with those boys,” said Gwen Johnson, a 49-year-old lawyer from Baltimore who would trade a “cute” benchwarmer any day for one who can smack the daylights out of Peyton Manning. “I know what a crossing pattern looks like, and I know what a skinny post is. We do not wear pink halter tops with ?52? on them.”
But the jerseys they do wear have become big business for the Ravens and the NFL as a whole. The team?s store now stocks jerseys cut for women and other ladies? gear.
Women make up 46 percent of the Ravens fan base, according to a study by Scarborough Sports Marketing between March 2006 and February of this year of fans in the Baltimore area. And 54 percent of all women in the Baltimore region are proud Ravens fans, the study found. Is it any wonder that the city boasts its own womens? professional football team ? The Baltimore Burn?
A trip down RavensWalk, the open-air game day fair just outside M&T Bank Stadium, reveals a wide cross-section of women in purple. Ranging from 7 to 70 years old and above, teachers, construction workers, hospital employees and lawyers are donning their favorite jerseys and guaranteeing victories. And plenty of mother-and-daughter teams are rivaling father-and-son tandems.
What is it about the team that makes women paint themselves purple, wear floppy purple wigs and scream until it hurts? Is it the player?s skill or sex appeal?
For native Baltimorean Kathy Zerlaut, her favorite player, Todd Heap, embodies a little of both. “He?s an all-around player,” she said. “He?s a blue-collar guy, kind of what you?d expect a Baltimore player to be. He doesn?t get a lot of flash, but he gets the job done.”
Wendy Davis, 40, of Bel Air, knows all about Heap. She?s attended “Football 101” classes held by the Ravens, where women are invited to M&T Bank Stadium and taught the basic fundamentals by Ravens players. They are then escorted onto the field where they work out, catch and pass footballs with the players.
BECOME PART OF THE TEAM
Ladies, want to join Purple, the Ravens’ fan club for women? It’s free to join, just click here or click “Purple” under the “Ravenstown” heading on the team’s home page. Die-hard fans can pay $250 to become a “Lavender Lady,” and gain special access to team events, autograph sessions, and more.
A Purple Evening, a ladies event at M&T Bank Stadium, is scheduled for Oct. 1 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tickets are $30 online or $40 at the door.
Davis? cell phone ringtone is the Monday Night Football theme. A member of “Purple,” a women?s fan club formed by the team, she said the group has brought her together with similarly fanatic women.
“Football is just fun,” she said. “And going to these women?s events with the Ravens, you get to learn the ins and outs. You learn about the game and why it?s so addictive.”
A nurse at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air, Davis said male co-workers seek out her opinion on the Ravens? latest game. Some guys just need to be educated about football.
“We have a couple doctors who are Ravens fans,” she said. “They know how much I?m involved with the Ravens, and they will stop and talk to me and ask me what I thought about the defense, what I thought about the offense.”
Zerlaut and her friend, Christena Kreiling, of Frostburg, spent some time before Sunday?s game against the Arizona Cardinals waiting on a bench under the Warehouse for their favorite part of game day: The Ravens marching band. For Zerlaut, an employee of the University of Maryland of Baltimore County athletic department, and Kreiling, a retired teacher who was the athletic director of Beall High School in Frostburg, it was a connection to their academic roots.
“I like what the Ravens organization has done, including the old Colts band as the Ravens band, with the cheerleaders,” Zerlaut said. “It?s almost more of a college feel.”
The band the two women listen to includes the husband of Amy Weissenburger, 39, an 11th-grade teacher in Anne Arundel County. Weissenburger was raised by die-hard Colts fans but says she doesn?t get to as many games as her husband.
“I?m now the ultimate football widow,” she said. “He goes to games and leaves me here. I only go to one or two games a year with my parents. It?s the same exact experience when we were kids. My dad stares straight ahead and doesn?t talk, and my mom, sister and I scream and yell.”
She helps pass the time with fantasy football, one place where her devotion to the team might not help her.
“I got yelled at by the last group I joined because I tried to pick too many Ravens,” Weissenburger said. “They don?t understand my logic, but I have a plan all to myself. I pick Matt Stover first and then I pick the Ravens defense. And then whatever happens, happens.”
The team took notice of all the female interest, and this year launched Purple in late August. the club now counts more than 3,000 members, according to Gabrielle Dow, senior director of marketing for the Ravens. A “Purple Evening” is planned for Oct. 1 at the stadium, including on-field activities, question-and-answer forums and autograph sessions.
“We?re definitely trying to cater to our female fans. They?re out there, they?re very vocal,” Dow said.
The NFL has turned its attention to merchandise for the ladies, with wider selection of women?s jerseys and other items, and new commercials featuring female fans. Just a few years ago, women had to settle for men?s jerseys, said Chris Inouye, retail general manager of the Ravens Team Store.
Across the league, women?s replica jerseys are one of the hottest-selling items, Inouye said. Though he declined to release exact sales figures, Inouye said Baltimore women tend to buy different items from men.
“Todd [Heap] is probably No. 1 in women?s jerseys, Ray [Lewis] is the No. 1men?s jersey,” Inouye said. “I don?t think that?s an accident. Kyle [Boller] might outsell Steve [McNair] for women?s jerseys.”
The Ravens have provided something a little less tangible to at least one of their female fans, however. Dan and Terry Ziegler met in 1996 at Della Rose?s, then in Overlea, when they each went with friends to watch the team?s first-ever away game against the Steelers.
“I said I had season tickets [at Memorial Stadium],” Terry Ziegler, now 42, recalled telling her husband, Dan, 39. “He said ?So do I.? It turned out we were in the same section, Section 33, 10 rows away from each other.”
Memorial Stadium now exists only as a memory, commemorated in a monument at the new field, near M&T Bank Stadium. The old Della Rose?s is gone, too. But the Zieglers are still going strong with a pair of season tickets in Section 530.
“Seventy thousands fans, and your husband-to-be is 10 rows down,” Terry Ziegler said.
The Zieglers have a fairy-tale story to connect them to the Ravens, but women young and old speak of many attractions to the team. For some women, it?s all about X?s and O?s, and for others, it?s simple: The players are hot.
Bel Air resident Kelly Gibson took her daughter Samantha to her first football game Sunday, a modern-day reverse of the stereotypical father-and-son scenario. Crossing Lee Street toward the stadium, teenager Samantha mentioned her favorite players: team leader Ray Lewis, whose jersey she wore, and ? backup quarterback Kyle Boller?
“He?s cute,” she beams.
When Boller was mentioned to Terry Ziegler, however, she made a sour face, thinking more of his football skills. “He?s still got a lot to learn,” she growled.
NFL no longer a boy?s game
Female fans nationwide
Which team boasts the most female fans nationwide? (including fans who live in one city but root for another team)
1. Pittsburgh: 34
2. Green Bay: 29.4
3. Buffalo: 22.8
4. Kansas City: 22.4
5. Jacksonville: 21.7
6. Baltimore, New England and Denver (tie): 21.5
9. Tampa Bay and Washington (tie): 20.9
What women watch
» NFL: 22.1 percent
» MLB: 13.6 percent
» NBA: 12.6 percent
» Ice Skating: 6.5 percent
Women rocking the NFL
» 40 percent of fans at games are female.
» 375,000 women attend games on the weekend.
source: ESPN/Chilton, Scarborough Sports Marketing
The hot list
Ed Reed? Willis McGahee? Even Brian Billick? Sure, they?re great, but an informal and completely unscientific poll by The Examiner of female Ravens fans ranks the hottest Ravens as:
1. Todd Heap (above): Family values, community outreach, a lantern jaw and the ability to take hard hits over the middle, as he did on a crucial late play in Sunday?s 26-23 win over the Cardinals.
2. Matt Stover: Maybe no other team sells as many kicker?s jerseys, but someone has to score the points.
3. Ray Lewis: A Baltimore icon and the undisputed team leader. Check out his wingspan.
4. Kyle Boller: The backup quarterback has been hot and cold through the years, but mostly just hot for a number of women who aren?t complaining about his assets. ? Aaron Cahall
Who is your hot Raven? Tell us at examiner.com.
