Monty Shepardson (left) in her football uniform for the New York Sharks, and (right) in her work-a-day "uniform" at the Yale Alumni Fund.

Shepardson tackling life on the gridiron
in Women's Professional Football League

If the words "professional football" conjure up images of the hulking men of the National Football League (NFL), it's time to revise your thinking. For months now, Yale development officer Monty Shepardson has been donning a helmet, shoulder pads and other grid-iron gear as a member of the New York Sharks, one of 11 teams in the Women's Professional Football League (WPFL). Organized in 1999, the league kicked off its first official season of all-female, full-contact, tackle football this October. Shepardson has always dreamed of playing football, she says. "Our family is a huge Washington Redskin family. That's one of the things that got me so interested at such an early age in football -- just seeing the emotion and the interest in our family as we watched the games on TV." Like her fellow Sharks, who range in age from 18 to 50, Shepardson has a full-time job off the field, as associate director for Yale College programs in the University's Development Office. Like Shepardson, who was involved in swimming and track in high school, many of her teammates came to football from other sports. Many, like owner and general manager, Andra Douglas, played flag football for years, most recently as members of the Long Island Sharks, a national championship team. In addition to playing on the field, Shepardson helps out the Sharks' staff, handling media promotions and setting up appearances for the team at various venues. The Yale Bulletin & Calendar spoke to Shepardson recently about her foray into football. An edited transcript of that conversation follows. I'm tempted to ask what "a nice girl like you" is doing in a rough sport like football. I get that question a lot. I guess my answer is that I've always loved football. Since I was a child, I've had this secret dream to play professional football in pads and helmets with an organized team. Right after I got out of college I seriously considered starting a league just like this. I came up with some semblance of a business plan for starting a women's professional football. But I concluded at the end that the time wasn't right. Women's professional sports did not have the support 10 years ago that they do today, plus I didn't really have any sports management background. So, when I found out this league had been formed, I thought: "I've got to try out for that." What did you have to do to join the Sharks? When I found out about the league, I called the commissioner [J.T. Turner], who is a former Minnesota Viking. He said I should check out the New England Storm in Providence, Rhode Island. So I called for their tryouts schedule. There were actually two tryouts, consisting of the 40-yard dash, which is a benchmark of measuring someone's ability in football. In the NFL [National Football League], men are running the 40-yard dash in around 4.5 seconds, 4.9 seconds. We have women in this league who run it in about 5.1 seconds, really fast women. I came in at about 6 seconds. There were other agility drills: running around cones, ball handling, running out and catching passes. Then there were some fitness tests -- how many sit-ups can you do in 30 seconds, how many push-ups can you do in 30 seconds, how many times can you lift 85 pounds on a barbell, that kind of thing. Over 250 people came to those tryouts from all over the Northeast,. After that, I was one of 100 people who were invited to the team's minicamp in August. The minicamp was more involved -- learning plays, more fitness and agility drills. Sadly, I was cut from the team at the end of summer when they reduced the number of players from 100 to 65. I was devastated, and that's when I knew that it meant a lot to me to do this. Then I found out shortly afterwards that the New York Sharks down in Long Island were having tryouts. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go through the whole experience again, only to be cut again. But I tried out and made the team. I was thrilled and ecstatic. What kind of salary do team members get? Basically players are promised $100 a game, but only if they are on the active roster, and they're payed at the end of the season. Everyone on the team has a full-time job outside of football. For people like me, who are coming from Connecticut and driving two or three hours each way to practices and games three or four times a week, the $100 wouldn't covering my expenses. I'm actually paying to play. What position do you play? Everyone on our team has an offensive and defensive position. My offensive position is fullback, which is a running back, but there are four or five people in front of me in that position. I usually play my defensive position, which is linebacker. I'm second string on that, so I go in the game if we're doing well. Also, I'm often on the kick-off team, which is great fun. Have you made any good plays? In our last game against our in-state rivals, the New York Galaxy from Rochester, I recovered a fumble, which was a really big deal. It was at the beginning of the second half. We were winning 34-0, and we wanted to shut them out -- and we did 41-0, in the end. They were driving down the field, and I thought, "If they score here I'll just die." All of a sudden, the play starts, and I hear someone yell,"Fumble!" And there's the ball bouncing right in front of me. I fell on it, and everyone fell on me. It's really a wild experience. You really feel like you're on a battlefield. For most of us, because we've never played before, there's this heightened awareness of just how amazing the whole experience is. Are there any differences in the kind of game you play versus what an NFL team would play? Although we're playing by NFL rules, the type of game we're playing is called the Wing-T. Many colleges use the Wing-T game plan, which is designed to form a strong running game and to complement the running game with a passing game. You play by the same rules, but is there a difference in style between the men's and women's teams? Not really. In terms of the intensity, I think women are very intense. When people see us on the field, especially men who are skeptical about women playing football, they'll watch the game and say, "You can't even tell it's women playing." The plays are sophisticated; it looks just like professional football. So the women players are just as aggressive as the men? Very aggressive. I can point out the bruises on my body. A lot of the women are out there to hit you as hard as they can. How often do the Sharks play? We practice twice a week, Wednesday and Thursday nights in Long Island, and we have our games on Saturdays. We're nearing the end of our season. We had two games last weekend, and now we go into the playoffs. If we do well in the playoffs, we go to Florida for the equivalent of the Superbowl. That would be incredible. Are there a lot of injuries? There are, and each team has a league-appointed physician. I've broken my fingers three times, and one is still broken. That's all from tackling and tipping balls. These quarterbacks can throw the ball and it's like a bullet coming at you. Are you attracting fans ? We've been fortunate to get between 500 and 1,500 people to each game. A lot of that was advanced ticket sales. Because this is the first year, none of the teams have had a budget for advertising, which has hurt us a little bit. Next year, the season will probably be changed to the early spring. It's more conducive to getting people to the games. Right now we're competing with every other football event, high school, college and pro. Do you see yourselves as role models? I don't think the people on our team really think about it that way. When it really hits you is when you're doing a promotional event or you're in the newspaper, or after our home games, when you have little boys running up asking you to autograph the game program -- that's when you think, "This is really a big deal to people." Do you think some day more young women will play football? That's one of the goals of the WPFL, to introduce women's football at the college level and at the high school level. Unlike men's football, there are no feeder programs. Our players come from softball, rugby, flag football and soccer, and they have to translate their athletic ability to the skills of football which is taking some time. Boys start playing football when they're 10 years old. How long have you been at Yale? What do you do here? I came here in 1993. I started out working in the Office of the Secretary, and moved over to Development. Now I'm an associate director with the Alumni Fund. There, I've worked with a variety of different classes. The bulk of my work has been with the Yale College alumni classes of the 1990s and with undergraduates. I played a big role in the development of the undergraduate programs: the Senior Class Gift, and the Junior Class Thank-a-thon. I am really proud of those programs. Currently, I work with the classes of 1979 to 1989, and I enjoy that just as much. Would you leave Yale for life with the WPFL? Well, I certainly can't leave my job for $100 a week. ... But if the salary were right, would you like to play football full time? If that option ever were to materialize, I certainly would seriously consider it. But I also would consider the fact that I'm 33 years old. We have players in their 40s and 50s, so age is not an obstacle to playing in the WPFL. But I think age is a factor in all sports. Another thing to consider is the intensity of the game. You look at these NFL players, and you have to ask yourself, "How beat up are you? How many concussions have you had? How many times has your knee had to be operated on?" So, there are a lot of factors that go into making a decision like that. The New York Sharks go into the playoffs on Dec. 9. For more information, visit the WPFL's website at www.womensprofootball.com or the Sharks' home page at www.nysharksfootball.com. -- By LuAnn Bishop T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S Study says 1 in 3 doctors don't go to the doctor Allen Forte Chair honors renowned Yale musical theorist Alumnus Thomas Golden creates chair in engineering Shepardson tackling life on the gridiron in Women's Professional Football League Author McCourt shares memories of his teaching days Harry Adams will fill in as the acting dean of Divinity School Event explores encounters between U.S., Middle East Record-setting Bulldog garners regional awards Czech Republic honors Demetz for scholarship MEDICAL CENTER NEWS Researchers find two genes responsible for emphysema Estrogen deprivation kills the brain's dopamine cells, researchers have found Advanced nursing home care extends life of elderly with cancer Larger-needle breast biopsies lead to more accurate diagnosis biopsies Unsafe home environment is not leading cause of falls among elderly, study finds Elder Life Program helps prevent patients' mental decline in hospitals Yale doctor is first to use new imaging technique Alumna wins major prize for science research Stained Glass: Photos from around the campus Program targets speeders 'Angelic' Russian choir to perform holiday carols Multimedia work combines the natural and the technological to tell a tale of love In the News Yale Scoreboard Bulletin Home|Visiting on Campus| Calendar of Events|Bulletin Board Classified Ads|Search Archives|Production Schedule|Bulletin Staff Public Affairs Home|News Releases| E-Mail Us|Yale Home Page