Women's football stars not short on Passion

Passionate, they call Philly fans.

Uttered with a snicker after each altercation with a taser or toddler drinking a beer, it's the term they use to describe us, as if it's some sort of code. We know what they mean. And so do they.

So hopefully, the rest of the country can handle it as Philly's passion transfers from the stands to the field in the form of the women's football team, the Philadelphia Passion, when they move into their fresh digs at PPL Park.

Let's get it out of the way: This used to be a lingerie football league.

But 2013 will be the LFL's first year as the Legends Football League, a step toward legitimacy greatly appreciated by Passion stars Marirose Roach (RB) and Heather Perez (S).

"I've played in other football leagues before, and the lingerie side of it and part of the name was definitely unattractive for me," Roach admits. "If we're focusing on football, usually lingerie shouldn't play in a role in that.  It did, prior to this year, so I was very excited that they were changing the name and I think the league is trying to have more credibility for the athletes now, which is also something that I'm happy about."

"Now we can work with a lot more organizations and different schools," Perez agrees. "For me, I'm supposed to get together with schools to work with athletes and their big thing for not working with us was because of the lingerie name, they didn't want to associate with that. I like working with the kids, and I think that's definitely one of the good things about the change."

The dress code may have been a gimmick, but the athletes have always been real, starting from the beginning.

Both come from watching football in their adolescence, with Roach having lined the walls of her Connecticut bedroom with Barry Sanders posters, an NFL icon to whom Roach has now been compared.

Perez, on the other hand, took a more defiant route, as the cheelreader who tried out for her high school football team because people told her she couldn't.

"I've always played in the courtyard with all the boys and stuff, but I never really thought about playing because, growing up, girls don't play on football teams," she recalls.

"But once I made a joke about it, and they told me that I actually couldn't, that's what really pushed me and motivated me to try it. I've loved it ever since."

Perez's North Jersey upbringing put her amongst Giants fan by proxy, and Roach obviously followed the Lions at least part of the time. But both players also maintain an attachment to the Philly area, with Perez having grown up right next door and Roach graduating from Temple.

Now, they remain vaunting physical threats on the field and endlessly complimentary of each other off of it.

"You have to mention that HP fought in Iraq last year," Roach tells me.  "She's my hero."

It's true. Roach and Perez have a long list of extracurriculars that make the day-to-day activities of a normal person look like being bedridden.

"My personal life, I'm a very laid back person," says Perez, the active Air Force Combative Instructor/Iraq veteran.  "Hitting is my way of getting my aggression out that I don't get out in my regular life.

Roach similarly refuses timeouts. Last year, she was sitting on a couch after winning the LFL Offensive Player of the Year Award, sporting a neck brace due to a torn ligament and made sure she mentioned her work with FootballHers, a program instituted to teach girls the intricacies of football.

"Football is one of the greatest team sports," Roach says.  "When you're on a team, there's so much depending on being a part of a whole. I know in Philadelphia, we're known for being one of the most tightly knit teams, and that's why we see so much success. You're part of a sisterhood, not a cult, but a family, where obviously you have one common goal."

"Everyone relies on each other," Perez chimes in.  "I don't make a good tackle, that's going to affect my running back; that's going to affect my quarterback. It's more about team camaraderie and having each other's backs."

The physical toll of football is actually how they unwind after a rough day at the office (Roach is also a lawyer) or youth academy (where Perez is a drill sergeant). In their new home, they hope to spark the next era of Passion football; one that involves less turf burns and hostile walls.

"Last year, the first two years, when you run into the outside of the barriers [at the Sun National Bank Center in Trenton, NJ] it's worse than getting hit by a person," explains Roach. "So I'm excited, one because the stadium is phenomenal, it's on the water, the atmosphere is great."

"We had our media day there a couple of months ago, and I just fell in love.  It's beautiful, it's bigger, and obviously grass is better to play on than turf," Perez agrees. "I have so many turf burns from this year. It's definitely going to be a lot better."

Roach and Perez would have probably played on a gravel parking lot had they been asked to, but the league's overall shift away from goofy double entendres and toward providing its players genuine resources make the LFL and the players in it all the more valid. This league isn't about what the players are wearing; this league is about the players on the field.

"There's so much that goes into being a great football player," says Roach. "It's a great value to have as a person no matter what you do in life. So, as far as values, commitment, physical education, perserverence and being part of a family, that's part of that same goal. I think that's great for any girl to be a part of. I think a girl that's into football now, there's a future in it, where maybe a decade ago there wasn't a future in women's football, and now there is."

"That's pretty much it," Perez replies. "You nailed it."

Hopefully, Philadelphia can handle a little more Passion.