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iVillage blogs about...football?

Erica Ogg Former Staff writer, CNET News
Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, as well as the consumer electronics industry. She's also one of the hosts of CNET News' Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she's a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur.
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Erica Ogg
2 min read

Titles can be deceiving.

Online women's lifestyle magazine iVillage.com has a new football blog called The Female Fan, but a quick persusal reveals it isn't really for female fans of pro football. It's better to think of it as a resource for ladies who want to figure out the Sunday ritual that consumes their husbands, boyfriends and brothers.

Case in point: Friday's entry discusses the play where a touchdown was counted even though the replay footage showed the player stepped out of bounds before entering the end zone. The blog's author, Betsy Berns, recognizes her iVillage audience and takes time to explain the football jargon.

She defines fourth quarter ("the last 15 minutes"), a tight end ("an offensive player who can receive passes but also is responsible for blocking") and end zone ("the area where the man carrying the ball has to get to in order to score a touchdown"). Yes, the blog will elicit more than a few chuckles from avid sports fans (this one included). But gals who want to be able to make NFL pop cultural references ("OMG, Tom Brady and Bridget Moynahan are sooo cute together!") will probably find The Female Fan a fun read.

Berns wants her blog to be a "comfortable and non-intimidating" source for women who might be casually interested in football or at least in hosting a Super Bowl party, but who aren't in for a full breakdown of each game from CBS Sportsline or ESPN.com, she said in an interview with News.com.

Though Berns is a legitimate sports fan--she has a fantasy football team and is a longtime San Francisco 49ers devotee--the Connecticut mother of three promises not to spew stats in her Monday morning round up. Rather, she says she wants to teach women how to follow an NFL game and, most importantly, have interesting tidbits to contribute at the water cooler.

Readers "are not going to have to follow how many yards Tiki Barber rushed for. It will be the big story, like the Manning brothers playing against each other," she said.

Berns says she's just out to make women feel more included. "Football is part of our pop culture. That's what people are talking about from September to Feb. 4."