Seven hundred women hooted and hollered as Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Tice stepped onto the stage at the team's Winter Park training center in Eden Prairie. They laughed at his jokes about losing, tittered when he revealed that "some cute players" would soon be joining him, and even cheered the introduction of Sid Pillai, a mathematician who is the team's football systems analyst.
The Vikings are 0-4, the owner appears to be shopping the team around, and its marquee player recently spent a night in jail for allegedly bumping a female traffic control officer with his car. But fan apathy was nowhere to be found on Saturday during the team's annual football workshop for women.
Women and girls lined up outside Winter Park 45 minutes before the program was scheduled to begin. When the doors to the spartan, cavernous warehouse opened, dozens of women grabbed a souvenir tote sack and sprinted 80 yards for a front-row seat.
Female fans may be less likely than their male counterparts to paint their upper torso the colors of their favorite team, but they represent an important economic force that the National Football League is trying to reach.
The Football 101 workshop is part of that effort. The NFL developed it in 1997, and the Vikings were one of eight teams to introduce it that year. This year, about two dozen teams will offer similar sessions.
According to a recent study by ESPN/Chilton, 18.8 percent of women rate professional football as their favorite sport, nearly three times the number who chose figure skating. On an average weekend, 54 million women watch NFL games, and 40 percent of those attending games -- more than 375,000 -- are women. Judging by the number of purple sweatshirts, windbreakers, parkas and puffy slippers, most of the nearly 700 women who paid $35 for Saturday's event were passionate, knowledgeable and faithful that the team's fortunes soon would improve.
"I think they can still turn it around," said Laurie Stark of Shakopee, who was still breathless after she and 10 others demonstrated a kickoff formation on stage. The session began with welcoming remarks and a pep talk by Tice. He made a passing reference to the legal problems of Randy Moss, who faces five misdemeanor charges following a Sept. 24 traffic altercation and arrest. He outlined a typical week's schedule before turning the program over to his assistant coaches and some players, including backup quarterback Todd Bouman, special-teams player Jack Brewer and tight end Byron Chamberlain.
Later the women got to test their ability throwing a football through a tire and their knowledge of Vikings trivia.
Though they don't watch all of the games, Briana Moses, 9, of New Hope, and her cousin Alexandra Erickson, 8, of Birchwood, consider themselves true fans. Both are convinced that the Vikings will turn around the season.
"I think they're going to win at least one game," Moses said.
Maybe a Jerry Springer special "My spouse has been taken by a gang of Tolkien geeks!"