Melissa Jacobs knows — heck, loves — football. She grew up watching the NFL, started to play fantasy football as a teenager, and was a producer for ESPN. This passion for the game inspired Jacobs to start the website TheFootballGirl.com in the fall of 2009.
“I feel like women have evolved beyond the stereotype,” said Jacobs, speaking by phone a few days before the start of playoffs. “I felt like there was an audience that really cared about the hoopla and a little bit more about the technical side.”
| If you go |
| ‘Are You A Football Girl?’ |
| Where: Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, 600 I St. NW |
| When: Wednesday |
| Info: $8 in advance, $10 day of; sixthandi.org |
According to Jacobs, women make up between 43 and 45 percent of the NFL’s fan base.
“They’re obviously interested in the game,” she said. “I realized there was a whole untapped world for female fans. Plus a lot of the mainstream outlets don’t market to them anyway.”
On Wednesday, Jacobs is hosting an event at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue titled “Are You A Football Girl?” The evening, presented by the 6th in the City 20s and 30s group, will include a discussion about her site, the role of women in the NFL and how the league markets to them, and some education.
Jacobs’ site, for which she is the managing editor, features breaking news that any NFL junkie would appreciate; an occasional profile of a woman working in the league, including front-office, media and cheerleaders; some football 101; and a fantasy section.
The balance, and challenge, of TheFootballGirl.com is to appeal to everyone from die-hard fanatics to those who are just starting to learn the game. Jacobs stresses that the site has aspects that appeal to all, not just women.
“That’s what I try to do,” Jacobs said. “I try to feature something for everyone.”
With the ever increasing popularity of football, the NFL draws fans far and wide, more so than any other sport in America. And many of those viewers are women, be them longtime die-hards or neophytes trying to get a handle on things because their boyfriends or co-workers are talking about Tebow, Favre and Vick.
“It’s extended beyond the sports world and is such a humongous part of pop culture,” Jacobs said. “It is water cooler talk among everyone, whereas I don’t think people are necessarily, outside of Chicago, going off about Derrick Rose’s buzzer-beater. Anything that happens in the NFL, it seems like it penetrates the outside world. I think that’s what has drawn a lot of new female fans as well in the last five or 10 years.”
