The Football Girl’s Next Chapter
Hi friends. It’s been a while. It’s also been a major time of transition for The Football Girl.
I started this website to elevate women in football, to make women the full outfit, not just the accessory. In the decade since launching, we’ve accomplished that and so much more. We’ve broken news, introduced you to a range of women in football, provided advice from fantasy football tips for the industry’s best ranker, produced a boatload of sharp analysis and commentary, and even had the honor of being an answer on Jeopardy! We’ve won awards and established ourselves as a respected media brand, the kind where they start pitching cool people to you. We also published a lot of quirky stuff, the stuff you can’t do at legacy media companies. (Some of which I’m embarrassed to read now but fun nonetheless.)
When we started, there were basically no other outlets covering the advancement of women in the NFL. That has changed. We still have a long way to go but between other the coverage from other outlets and mostly the great work of the NFL’s Sam Rapoport to create a legitimate pipeline for women, equality in the league is slowly getting normalized.
While I will continue to cover the NFL and its societal issues for The Guardian and other outlets, the time has come to close shop at The Football Girl, at least in its prior form. I plan to keep the site alive for the time being and will try to add a bit more informational and educational content as time allows. And to the dismay of my husband, I will continue tweeting football things on a way too frequent basis.
The main impetus for this change is that my heart and soul is now fully engaged in the world of youth sports. I am a coach, a board member, and most importantly, a parent who wants to help my kids get all the benefits of youth sports while minimizing the greedy, toxic side. I’m thrilled to announce that I recently started a Substack newsletter to join together with like-minded youth sports parents. If you fall into that camp, I really hope you’ll subscribe and come along for the ride. It’s free!
There will be some youth sports-related football coverage that I will cross-post here, but for the most part TFG, as you’ve known it. will be no longer.
I am so grateful to the litany of contributors, and assistant editors who have come along for the ride, especially Pat Fitzmaurice (who is now kicking butt over at FantasyPros). But my deepest gratitude is reserved for you, the readers. Without your support, this journey would have never happened.
Thank you for everything,
Melissa Jacobs – always and forever a Football Girl
