Women's team hopes Welter paves way

— -- ADDISON, Texas -- As dusk rapidly faded into dark on a recent weeknight, Dallas Elite quarterback Jessica Gerhart dropped a shotgun snap she never saw.

Not that anyone ever complains about practices that end early because of darkness, or those extended on nights a full moon acts like a flashlight.

After all, it's not as if the Elite have official permission to practice at Alfred J. Loos Stadium, 25 minutes north of downtown Dallas. The players show up and hope the gate is unlocked as usual, and they make sure their empty water bottles and trash are removed when they leave.

Such is life in the National Women's Football Alliance, in which members of the Elite pay $850 to play football. Team owner/running back Odessa Jenkins created a GoFundMe page to help defray the cost of playing Saturday's championship game against the Washington Divas in Los Angeles.

So far, they've raised $3,300 of the $5,000 needed from 92 donors.

One day, maybe, it won't be this way for women who love to play football. Perhaps a generation from now, they'll practice on lush fields at lighted stadiums and get paid to play.

They're praying Jen Welter, who recently joined the Arizona Cardinals as the first female intern on an NFL coaching staff, is their football messiah.

They hope Welter, who played several seasons with the Dallas Diamonds before the franchise folded after the 2012 season, can create opportunities for women that have never existed, such as coaches and scouts.

"There are women who needed a trailblazer like Jen Walter to kind of inspire them to do this," offensive lineman Joos Martin said. "I want to coach, or I'd like to be a scout, but it's a field dominated by men.

"Seeing her do that on such a huge stage gives you a certain kind of courage you didn't have before."

Understand, women such as Charlotte Jones Anderson of the Dallas Cowboys, Amy Trask, former CEO of the Oakland Raiders, and Cincinnati's Katie Blackburn have excelled in various high-profile front-office positions.

Linda Bogdan, daughter of former Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson, was the NFL's only female scout at the time of her death from cancer in 2009. The New York Jets made Connie Carberg the NFL's first female scout in 1976.

There's hope Welter's eventual success can create the same types of coaching and scouting opportunities women are starting to get in the NBA, where the San Antonio Spurs hired Becky Hammon as an assistant coach. Recently, the Sacramento Kings hired Nancy Lieberman as an assistant coach.

"Jen doesn't have credibility with the average American, and she definitely doesn't have credibility with NFL linebackers," said team owner Jenkins, who regularly speaks with Welter.

"She's going to have to earn it the hard way, and that's why she's the right person. She's an educated woman and she's sellable. Jen is important to the guy in the boardroom, not the guy sitting on the couch because she's marketable."

On one of Reggie Collins' first dates with La'Shaunte Bowman, the topic turned to football.

"I thought she was talking about lingerie football until I went to the first practice," Collins said, "and they're wearing shoulder pads and helmets and hitting each other like you'd see at a regular game. I was like, 'Wow, she really does this.' "

Actually, Bowman, 23, and her 41-year-old mother, LaKissha Bowman, are the Elite's starting defensive ends. They're hardly alone in their love of football.

The NWFA, established in 2008, has 43 teams and more than 1,500 players. As you would expect, there's a huge disparity between teams, in part, because of the wide gap in experience between franchises.

The Elite, an experienced team, has outscored its opponents 449-12 in the eight-game regular season. They've won their three playoff games by a combined score of 180-45, including a 56-28 win over San Diego to earn a spot in the title game.

Their opponent, the Washington Divas, have outscored their opponents 269-68.

Jenkins really had no intention of owning a women's football team. When she first began playing years ago, all she wanted to do was find something fun until the next basketball season began.

These days, she has much bigger dreams.

"This is the highest level of women's football and we're out here shagging a field," Jenkins said. "We're not even supposed to be out here.

"I want there to be a WNFL. I want the big boys to say we're going to pick these girls up and give them a legitimate shot to play so they don't have to take out a GoFundMe to be able to play in a national championship game -- and it took a [businesswoman] to do that."

She founded this team because she wants to create a model for how a women's football team should operate. It costs about $75,000 to finance the team for the regular season.

A typical road trip requires $5,000 for a chartered bus, 25 hotel rooms for 43 players and eight coaches, and two meals for each member of the traveling party.

The playoffs are separate.

"I do it all from my hustle, I fund-raise everything," Jenkins said. "That's the only way I know how to do. I'm not independently wealthy."

LaKissha Bowman would tell you it's all worth it because of the experiences she has shared with her daughter. No better feeling exists than mother and daughter meeting at the quarterback.

A few players, such as Gina Holcomb, live in Houston and make the nearly four-hour drive for games and practices, when they can. Holcomb dislocated her jaw in the playoff win over San Diego but returned to the game. Tracie Williams, 46, the Elite's oldest player, missed most of the season because of a broken ankle. She's playing Saturday.

"Love of the game is step one for women's football," Jenkins said. "None of us are becoming millionaires from this or thousand-aires. We're dollar-naires."

You can tell from the parking lot where Hondas, Fords and Toyotas are the vehicles of choice. The roster is littered with teachers and professionals such as chiropractors.

Football, for now, must remain a hobby and a sorority of sorts. Martin met her two best friends on this team. Another player helped her find a job.

This is family.

"It's hard to walk away from this game after nine years even with all the aches and pains," Martin said. "You just wrap yourself in Saran Wrap, walk out there and play football."