Special Persons What does it take to be a quarterback in Womens Football? Ask Vince Lombardi.
Gary SARNOFF
Had Vince Lombardi grown up in this age, he might have had a lot of respect for Allyson Hamlin and Kimberly Boroyan.
Hamlin, the quarterback of the DC Divas, a team in the National Women’s Football Association, exhibits the qualities that were the requirements of Lombardi’s famed “special person.”
Sure, there are a lot of men that scoff at the notion of a professional female quarterback. What can they really know? They don’t even have a Division I college program in which they can learn.
Lombardi would say that quarterbacks aren’t manufactured, they’re born. They exhibit leadership, thinking under pressure, communication, a thorough knowledge of what everyone does on every play, and knowledge of the opposing defense.There is no gender requirement to “get” being a QB.
“You show leadership by example,” adds Hamlin.
“Being a leader is more than a position” according to Kimberly Boroyan, the Quarterback for the Bay State Warriors of the Independent Women’s Football League. “It is many things. Getting the job done, displaying confidence, gaining the confidence of your teammates. And it is setting examples.”
Boroyan talks about vision being a key part of her position: Knowing all the assignments of the other ten players of her offense for each play.
“It also includes reading defenses, making a split second decision, and knowing what must happen” Kimberly says.
COPS
Quick thinking is key. Hamlin’s work on the gridiron gets a boost from her other profession as an employee of the Prince George County Police Department.
Sometimes it works the other way, too. During one Divas practice there was a hit and run accident on the street close to the Divas practice field. In full uniform, Allison responded by jumping into her car and trailing the hit and run driver. The Driver eventually pulled over and Allison made the arrest with shoulder pads, cleats, and a gun.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
The Quarterbacks throughout the women’s professional football leagues will see a variety of defensive formations. They need to be aware of the blitz, defensive line stunts, and the many other tricks the opposition can throw at them. The game is played with NFL rules.
Gender doesn’t change the game, but it does intensify one critical component of Lombardi’s rules for a successful quarterback: Respect.
Women have programs to play baseball, basketball, and hockey in college. The NCAA, which likes to tout what it does for women’s athletics, stomps on Title IX equality in sports itself because it doesn’t sanction a level of football, the sacred cash cow of college sports, equivalent to the men’s game.
That doesn’t stop women from having a passion to play football, so they find other ways to get the experience that they need to succeed and command that respect.
