Hang in There, Nashville: Watchable Pro Football Is On the Way

Of course, I'm talking about the Lingerie Football League.

Let's face it - the Titans have been M.I.A. since Week 7 this season.

The timing is perfect.

The Lingerie Football League, billed as “True Fantasy Football," plans to bring its bikini-clad female athletes to Nashville in 2012.

Mitchell Mortaza, founder and chairman of the league, said Music City was the “perfect market," and that Bridgestone Arena would be “the right venue" for the sport which began as a pay-per-view alternative to the Super Bowl halftime show in 2004.

Now with 10 teams in cities like Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami, some of the games are televised by MTV. “We’re in an aggressive growth mode, when other sports, especially women’s sports, are scaling back," said Mortaza, 37, whose offices are in West Hollywood, Calif. “Our girls come from all walks of life, and they are 100 percent former college athletes," he said, acknowledging that one of the requirements to play “is to be beautiful, but they also have to be athletic, they can’t be beautiful and just be prancing around." Sean Henry, President and COO of the Nashville Predators and Bridgestone Arena, said he has been contacted by a representative of the league. “We talked a little bit, but nothing past that." The league recently made news with a bench-clearing brawl at a game between the Miami Caliente and the Tampa Bay Breeze, a YouTube sensation.

Mortaza insists the game isn’t “scripted," and says Nashvillians, “can expect the unexpected, from the players. “If the NFL goes on strike, then this is going to be big."

I wonder if the cheerleaders are 350-pound dudes in Speedo.

Coming Soon to Music City: Competitive Pro Football

Cross-posted.