Chicago Bliss, The Local Lingerie Football Team, Are Getting A Reality TV Show

(CBS) A Chicago football team is getting its own reality television show, and it’s not the Chicago Bears.

Come this fall, Oxygen is debuting a new show called “Pretty. Strong.” It’s based on Chicago’s Legends Football League team, the Chicago Bliss.

It will star eight members of the Bliss, including Alli Alberts, Jamie Barwick, Deena Fagiano, Heather Furr, ChrisDell Harris, Nneka Nwani, Yashi Rice and Chantell Taylor.

The Chicago Bliss, who play at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, have proved themselves stellar football players. They’ve won two consecutive championships and are now going for a third.

The Legends Football League used to be called the Lingerie Football League but rebranded itself in 2013. At the time, the league stated that players, instead of wearing lingerie, would start wearing “performance wear.” This would lead many to complain that “performance wear” is “basically exactly the same as the lingerie uniforms.”

The promos for the show, one of which is below, have portrayed the players’ love for football as something that outweighs the perception of their team and the league.

Another promo for the show attempts to show off a wide range of women, from tomboys to mothers and even a prosthodontist — “It basically means I’m a badass dentist.”

Not surprisingly, people have questioned how the league portrays women. With something so risqué, these questions will undoubtedly follow the show, too. Players themselves have even broached the subject.

“My parents, they were both upset, especially initially,” Alli Alberts — the prosthodontist — told DNA Info in May. “They couldn’t believe I could do something to hurt my career, and they couldn’t understand the reasoning behind it. … But I fell in love with football. I’ve had this fight with multiple people who say it’s totally awful to women. And I tell them, ‘I see your point, but I’m still going to play.’”

Ultimately, players only have so much control over how their image is portrayed. The majority of the image and tone for the Legends Football League will always be set by those who run the league and the teams, not the players. The same goes for “Pretty. Strong.,” which will undoubtedly have narratives controlled by the producers, editors and writers (yes, reality TV has writers) working for Oxygen.

“Pretty. Strong.” debuts Oct. 6 at 9 p.m.

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D.C. Lingerie Football Team to Kick Off in 2016

The NFL season opener is just days away, but D.C. football fans may have something else to get excited about — they’ll just have to wait a little longer.

An all-female football team is coming to D.C. next season, in what has been called the world’s fastest growing sports franchise, although their first season won’t begin until April 2016.

The Washington Warriorettes will be part of the Legends Football League (LFL), formerly known as the Lingerie Football League. But the game hasn’t changed — you can still expect to see women playing tackle football in bikini-like outfits with helmets and football pads.

The Warriorettes decided against the name “Redskinettes” out of respect for Native Americans, said team chairman Mitchell Mortaza.

“We chose an empowering name like the Washington Warriorettes as to not offend such an important faction of people that were the origination of this great country,” Mortaza said in a release on the LFL’s website.

The Washington Warriorettes will play within the LFL’s Eastern Conference to include already-established franchises Toledo Crush, Jacksonville Breeze, Omaha Heart and Atlanta Steam.

Former Redskins legend Gary Wright will coach the Warriorettes, Yard Barker reported. The first season is set to begin in April 2016, but the host stadium has yet to be announced.

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