While American tackle football has long been considered an exclusively male sport, this week's guest Russ Crawford ("Women's American Football: Breaking Barriers On and Off the Gridiron") takes us on an eye-opening journey over the decades that highlights the persistent and still-growing interest of women playing the game - including professionally.

Anecdotal evidence abounds of amateur football competitions, collegiate intramural leagues, and even an 1926 NFL halftime exhibition featuring Frankford's "Lady Yellow Jackets" - proving women's intrigue with the sport.

The women’s game became more organized in 1965 with the launch of sports entrepreneur Sid Friedman's aspirational Women's Professional Football League, and later more forcefully in 1974 with the founding of the pioneering National Women’s Football League - featuring notable teams such as the Houston Herricanes, Dallas Bluebonnets, Toledo Troopers, Oklahoma City Dolls, and Detroit Demons.

Today, two robust national semi-pro outdoor leagues (the 60+ team Women’s Football Alliance; the 18-club Women’s National Football Conference), plus an increasingly evolved/credible indoor "X League" (fka as both the infamous "Lingerie," and later "Legends" Football League) - keep the women's gridiron game alive, with undoubtedly more pioneering to come.

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