When I asked myself why I love football, I realized it was one of the hardest questions I had ever pondered. The idea of 80,000 plus fans going to the same place for the same reason, the unbreakable bond with the other fans and the natural feeling of belonging are just some of the reasons why I love the game.
As a die-hard Redskins fan I am able to recite the schedule as if it were song lyrics and “Hail to the Redskins” is the story of my life, but I cannot count how many times guys have told me, “You know too much about football for a girl.”
The reality is that I am not the only girl to hear these comments regarding female sports fans. Why is it that I am seen as boyish and unusual because of my love for the game. Are female fans really so different from their male counterparts?
“Male fans are more vocal and open about their opinions while women are quieter,” junior Bradley Boyland said. “There is the occasional woman fan that may be as vocal as the guys, but there is not many.”
But I am a vocal fan, and I am a girl, and I have the experienced those same heated conversations with my friends, the long fantasy football drafts, the daily NFL news text messages and the shameful bets that I sometimes regret, yet when I start talking football guys think I am some freak of nature that belongs in a case at Ripley’s Believe It or Not.  
When I thought about women sports broadcasters of the past I thought they would have had to fight to overcome the gender barrier, but I learned that I was wrong.
According to NBC 4 sports broadcaster Lindsay Czarniak, woman in the sports field are seen as equal to their male colleagues and are judged on their talent and knowledge, not their gender.
So if people in the sports world are able to see past one’s gender, why can’t fans?
In the meantime, I’m just going to keep on enduring the glares of guys who think I don’t know my stuff in an attempt to prove otherwise. Maybe this is good. Maybe it’s a good thing to stand out.
 “We actually know something and we want to let people know that,” sophomore San Diego Chargers and Pittsburgh Steelers fan Sarah Feuerborn agreed. If your opinions are different, you want people to know your stand [on the games] and if they are the same as other people’s we still want to know where you stand.”
And I have found that standing out for my football fanaticism has only lead to more opportunity, including my chance talk to some of the greatest woman sportscasters. Though the looks I get are a bit intimidating, they are worth it, and I am determined to prove that I am not at the game just for the eye candy or to wear a pink jersey.
I go to the games for the same reasons guys do: the friends, the fun and of course, the football. Female fans are literally just like male sports fans, but sometimes we wear skirts.
Guys always come up to me to ask me a question about sports and I do not give them weird looks, so guys do the same for the ladies. Respect the female fans. You are smart enough to see past our gender.