Women's professional football's highest achievers to play at Tom Benson stadium
Cynthia "Red" Bryant has played women's professional football for 24 years.
During that time, she's also raised a family, built a successful career and excelled at the sport she loves.
On Sunday, she'll head to Canton for the Women's Football Alliance championships, which are being held at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium for the second consecutive year.
The championships will feature matchups between the top two teams in each of the WFA's three divisions, plus its All-American game.
Last year's coverage:Family, friends traveled thousands of miles to watch women's football championships in Canton
'For the love of football'
For the entirety of her professional football career, Bryant, 49, has played for and been a staple of the Minnesota Vixen organization. In her two dozen years with the team as a defensive tackle, she's been named an all-defensive player and an All-American 17 times. In 2018, she was part of the first class of players inducted into the Women of Football Hall of Fame in Las Vegas.
But unlike her male professional football counterparts, Bryant hasn't received millions of dollars for her accolades and sacrifices.
Women in the sport often aren't paid, and they must find sponsors to fund their equipment, facilities and travel. Many of the women also juggle careers, family commitments and outside hobbies in addition to football.
When Bryant started playing football as one of the original Minnesota Vixen in 1999, she had a 6-year-old son. She's also maintained a decades-long career as a high school dean in Minneapolis. And all along, she's worked to promote the sport, despite sacrificing her time and money elsewhere.
But for her, it's all worth it to ensure women can continue playing football professionally.
"The sacrifice is for the love of the game, it's for the love of football. I feel like every one of us who balances our worlds (do so) because we want to put forth an effort for the future generation for other young ladies," Bryant said. "With any women's sport, it starts somewhere, and there has to be pioneers ... who are willing to sacrifice this amount of time and pay-in because what we get from it is the future of women being able to play football."
'Trailblazers for the next generation'
Danielle Fournier, defensive end for the Boston Renegades, is one of the women who are playing football today partly because of Bryant's commitment over the years.
Fournier, 29, started playing football because she played rugby at the University of New Hampshire and wanted to continue to be a part of a team out of college. Throughout her football career, she's seen her teammates have to navigate the complexities of working careers, raising families and playing football.
Fournier works long hours as a strength and conditioning coach at a gym in Boston, which sometimes makes it difficult to plan her schedule. She's also given up part of her social life to play professional football, she said, but it's all worth it. After a long day, she shows up to practice and is reminded why she does it all.
"I wouldn't say it's not challenging to kind of juggle everything, but it's just so rewarding," she said. "You have to work and you have your family life and everything else to juggle, but you make it a priority and you make it work."
Due to the efforts of people like Bryant, who has been in the league from its inception, and Fournier, who is relatively new to the league, women's professional football is making significant advances in exposure and talent.
"For the first few years, it was frustrating. The teams were small, there was not a lot of buy-in. People didn't really take it serious. But over the years it has grown so much and there's so many (teams) everywhere," Bryant said. "People are starting to really pay attention to us."
Lisa King, commissioner of the WFA, has also observed the league's growth in popularity and understands the lengths her league's players go to in order to continue their passion.
In holding the WFA's championships in Canton — the home of the best players professional football has to offer — King and the league are trying to bolster women's professional football's fanbase. And those who are playing now are laying the groundwork for the sport to continue to grow in popularity and participation.
If that growth continues, King said, it will likely open opportunities for women to gain a foothold into the sport and get paid for their commitments.
"We consider the players right now to be trailblazers for the next generation to ensure that women have a place to be able to get paid in the future," King said. "It's really just to make sure we show the world women can play tackle football, they can play at a high level, there's a fanbase for it. ... It's really just paving the way for the next generation to have it as a legitimate sport in college and professionally."
Contact Ryan via email at rmaxin@gannett.com, on Twitter at @ryanmaxin or by phone at 330-580-8412.
If you go:
Saturday, July 9, at 2 p.m.
Oklahoma City Lady Force vs. Capital City Savages
Game 2: Division II National Championship
Saturday, July 9, at 6 p.m.
Mile High Blaze vs. Derby City Dynamite
Game 3: Xenith All-American Game
Sunday, July 10, at 10 a.m.
Game 4: Pro Division National Championship
Sunday, July 10, at 2 p.m.
Minnesota Vixen vs. Boston Renegades
Watch on ESPN2
This article originally appeared on The Repository: The Women's Football Alliance championships are being held in Canton
