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Answering the Siren Call

Pro Footballers Tackle Stereotypes

By Judie Fertig Panneton
When Tina Rogers and Chantelle Powers want to unwind after a long day at work, they don’t do sissy stuff like get a pedicure or put their feet up and read fashion magazines. Instead, they play football for the 2005 champion Sacramento Sirens of the Independent Women’s Football League.
    What is it about this rough-and-tumble, pounding sport that attracts quarterback Powers, a caretaker for a 27-year-old paraplegic, and strong safety Rogers, an elementary school teacher?
    The answers come flying out as both agree it’s like no other sport and playing on a three-time championship team makes it that much better. “It’s a passion and an adrenaline rush,” says Rogers, a five-year team veteran. “You can be as aggressive and competitive as you like. Once you start playing, it makes you feel great; that’s the bottom line.”
    “Football is my life,” an adrenaline-pumped Powers adds. On the Sirens since its inception in 2001, she thinks her attraction to football began when she was just a baby. “My brothers put a football in my crib, and it was my favorite toy. We lived on acreage, and I always played football with my brothers when I was growing up.”
    It was a time when football was a sport for the “guys” and the only place for “gals” was in a cheerleading uniform.
    Powers says her lucky break came when the coach of a North Highland youth football team invited her to suit up and be the only girl on the team. She was eight years old, weighed 45 pounds and she couldn’t have been happier.
Continued...

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