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According to ESPN that was on the topic list for the owners meeting in Phoenix last weekend. ESPN sources said they weren't going to be making policy but merely discussing it as something they were probably going to have make policy on soon.

Working from memory here but when women in male sports was discussed on Outside the Lines (about 5 months ago) I think they said there were 4 in Division A and nearly a dozen in AA. Compared to the total list of NCAA teams it doesn't sound like much, but if the ones in A were to advance to the NFL they could be the place kickers for one entire division, 1/8 of the league. They also said there were a lot trying out, though they didn't qualify that. There was a female goalie in the AHL for a while. Tammy Granato (captain of the American gold medal winning Women's Olympic hockey team) has said one of here goals in her career was to drop the gloves against her brother (who's in the NHL and was also representing America at the Olympics that year). Later she played on the Florida Heroes of Hockey team against the NHL Heroes team at the All-Star game, she even checked Gordie Howe.

Women in male sports is coming, and sooner than most of us think.

Not to argue too much in the hypothetical. I can see the possibility of women as kickers, although I am wondering which NFL team, at a position that frequently can mean the difference of millions in dollars in revenue for a ball club, is going to take a chance on a female kicker.

I can speak first-hand about basketball though, from personal experience. I played Div. III college basketball, lettering for 4 years (class of '97). I dont' know if you have any experience w/ college hoops, but the BEST of the Div. III players would be fairly average in Div. II. And the BEST of the Div. II players would be fairly average in Div. I. And the BEST of the Div. I players could be fairly average in the NBA. Only the BEST of the BEST, of Div. I players end up being able to excel in the NBA.

To put my own talents in perspective, I was, relative to my own team, an average player for all 4 years. Even as a senior I wasn't good enough to warrant a starting spot (although i was in the 7-man rotation; but I wasn't a starter). My school was average, in terms of how competitive we were in comparison to ALL Div. III schools. Never qualified for the Div. III tournament (qualified twice for the ECAC tournament - a very small, regional "NIT", if you will). So you get an idea of where I stacked up, relative to my team, Div. III, and college basketball in general.

In my hometown in southern Cal, over the summers, I worked out in a private gym that had a basketball court. The players who played on this court HAD to be members; ie, the competition was limited to in-house, and the great players of southern California weren't stampeding to get "next" on this court by any stretch of the imagination. I grew up working out and playing at this gym, so I had a lot of old friends there. Relative to pick-up games, the quality of play was AT BEST average. Most of the time it was composed of old timers, 15 year olds, bodybuilders who wanted to get in some recreational cardio exercise, and a handful of bona-fide hoopers. Again, this is to give you an idea of the level of quality at this gym's court.

Natalie Williams is a three-time All-WNBA First Team selection (1999, 2000, 2001), a three-time All-Star selection (1999, 2000, 2001), Led the WNBA in rebounding in 2000 with 11.6 rpg , was a member of gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic Team in Sydney, Australia in 2000, was USA Basketball's Female Athlete of the Year in 1999. In 2002 she led the league in offensive rebounding and was #4 overall rebounding. In other words, she's no slouch.

Natalie used to come and play every now and then at the gym. I heard about her showing up and playing, fairly regularly, but never actually watched her. I had a friend at the gym, who was friends w/ the UCLA women's coach at the time (not sure if she's still there), and it was this coach (who was a gym member) who would bring Natalie to play.

Well, one day I show up, and this pretty big looking girl (she's 6'2, 210, according to her stats) shows up, and I figured it was her.

I won't go into details, but that game CONVINCED me, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that women are no closer to being able to play in the NBA than they are being able to flap their arms and fly. In that gym, there were easily 10 guys (out of a total of 20), that I would have chosen to have on my team before I would pick her.

So, you may have a case to make for kickers in the NFL -- women can hide at that position. But there's nowhere for them to hide on the NBA court, and that is something that I dont' predict will EVER happen.