The book is also a celebration of these women as professional football players. The athletes were largely working-class women from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds and with a large contingent of queer women (on the Dallas team, some teammates decided to try out while at a lesbian bar together).

The reporting here features commentary on society: gender roles, race, queerness, and class. The book tells the story of fiercely passionate athletes who loved their game despite the many pitfalls and structural disadvantages facing their teams and league at large. We find ourselves in an era fresh with Title IX when many women hadn't experienced organized, athletic opportunities in school, and if they did, it certainly wasn't football, that hypermasculine ideal of tackling, getting down in the dirt, and sometimes bleeding for the game.

The book tells the story of fiercely passionate athletes who loved their game despite the many pitfalls and structural disadvantages facing their teams a Hail Mary welcomes readers to 1970s-80s women's football in the NWFL. Hail Mary welcomes readers to 1970s-80s women's football in the NWFL. In an era of vibrant second wave feminism and Title IX activism, the athletes of the National Women’s Football League were boisterous pioneers on and off the field: you’ll be rooting for them from start to finish.more Drawing on new interviews with former players from the Detroit Demons, the Toledo Troopers, the LA Dandelions, and more, Hail Mary brings us into the stadiums where they broke records, the small-town lesbian bars where they were recruited, and the backrooms where the league was formed, championed, and eventually shuttered. Hail Mary chronicles the highs and lows of the National Women’s Football League, which took root in nineteen cities across the US over the course of two decades. It was conceived as a gimmick-in the vein of the Harlem Globetrotters-but the women who signed up really wanted to play. In 1967, a Cleveland promoter recruited a group of women to compete as a traveling football troupe. It was conceived as a gimmick-in the vein of the Harlem Globetrotters-but the women who signed up really wanted The groundbreaking story of the National Women’s Football League, and the players whose spirit, rivalries, and tenacity changed the legacy of women’s sports forever The groundbreaking story of the National Women’s Football League, and the players whose spirit, rivalries, and tenacity changed the legacy of women’s sports forever In 1967, a Cleveland promoter recruited a group of women to compete as a traveling football troupe.

Definition of hail mary football