Meet The Women Who Drive Almost 1000 Miles In A Weekend To Play The Sport They Love

Adrian PurnellLauran Ziegler  and two other Atlanta Steam players hop into a rental car every two weeks and drive roughly 454 miles — from Tampa, Florida to Atlanta, Georgia — just to play in the LFL.

Their paths to the LFL, and I’m not referring to the literal car rides, are similar — Adrian Purnell moved back to Tampa and discovered her boyfriend trained at the same gym as an LFL coach.  She arranged a meeting and the rest is history.  Today, Adrian is one of the league’s most outspoken and passionate players. Lauran Zielger  was on track to become a professional skateboarder when she was forced to chose between getting a degree or going pro.  She chose to accept a softball scholarship and won honors as an All-American. After college, she discovered the LFL and showed up for the open tryouts.

Now, a car full of gorgeous women doesn’t sound like the worst way to travel but the trips aren’t always fun — especially after a loss or after way to much fucking Taylor Swift.

Lauran and Adrian talk about life on the road, the level of competition in the LFL and the art of trash talking in women’s football.

How far do you travel each week for games?

Lauran Ziegler: It’s about a seven hour drive but we stop often. I’m not alone though. Three other players travel in the car with me. Sometimes we’ll drive there but fly back, depending on the game times and the fares.

Adrian Purnell: It’s tight in the car but it’s not the worst experience ever.

How often do you do that? 

LZ: Usually it’s every two weeks, unless we’ve got back-to-back home games. Then it’s every week. On the off weeks we do conference calls or stuff online as far as game planning.

What do you do to pass the time? 

LZ: It’s a long ride so we talk about literally anything and everything going on in our lives. It’s four women and we know just about everything about one another. I drive most of the time so I don’t get engaged in most of the games, like charades, because I don’t want to put our lives on the line because of a guessing game. The drive home is always worse.

How miserable is the ride after the game because you’re sore and you might have lost the game?

AP: We’ve only had to do that once, that was last season, it was the playoff loss. It was the worst drive of all time.

LZ: Yeah, if we lose, there’s basically no talking.

Four women in a car, what’s the longest the car has gone without talking? 

LZ: (laughs) Maybe three or four minutes. Unless everyone falls asleep. Then it’s longer. We leave late on Fridays and usually don’t get into town until around 2am in the morning. I’d say from around 11pm until we arrive it’s kind of silent.

AP: I’ll say ten seconds. We go about ten seconds before someone starts talking.

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How many bathroom stops per drive?

LZ: Ugh, a lot. Especially because I want to stop often. Maybe four or five. I’ll have to go to the bathroom, so we’ll stop, and then a couple miles later someone will say “Oh, I want food” and we’ll stop again. It tends to add on some time.

AP: We’ve got it down to science though. We usually stop at the same places. We know “ok, this place is coming up, we’re going to stop.”

Did you ever approach the league with getting you a car with a team logo? Maybe promote the league for seven hours?

AP: That would be cool, we’re all about branding and promotion, but I doubt that would happen.

Is it a good bonding exercise?

AP: Car rides have definitely brought us closer on a personal level. I have so much more respect for the girls now.

LZ: We’re absolutely closer to one another because of the rides.

Who controls the radio?

LZ: Adrian!

AP: I DO NOT! You Taylor Swift us out! Too much Taylor Swift!

LZ: If I’m driving, and everyone is asleep, I’ll put on what I want but as we get closer the music does tend to get a little more violent.

What’s the pump up song? 

AP: Goin Crazy!

How long have the two of you been in the league? And how has the league evolved in those years?

LZ: This is my fourth year. We’re extremely competitive. From where we are now, to where we were four years ago, we’ve now got some true athletes in the league. Not taking anything away from the women who played in the first few seasons but we’ve got some talented, athletic people. Back then we had a few but we also just had some women who had “the look.” It’s beautiful female athletes, playing real football, out there to win.

AP: This is my sixth year. I 100% agree with Lauran but I’ve seen a difference in the marketing end. The league has really grown as far as developing the product and finding it’s audience. Instead of conforming to what society wants we found a way to combine sexy and football.

Where do most of the athletes come from? What other sports? 

LZ: It’s all walks of life and sports. We’ve got former basketball players, former cheerleaders, track stars, I’m a former softball player. We all had to start from the ground up as far as the sport but we all have athletic backgrounds.

Let’s say a woman comes up to you and says ‘I want to play’, what’s the first thing she should know about the league? 

LZ: The first question is her intention. Is she looking to play football or does she just want to run around and look cute on TV? If she wants to play competitive football, great, you need to have amazing cardio and you need to be physically and mentally strong. It’s a tough game. It’s not for the weak-hearted.

AP: Exactly. I get approached on a regular basis. I actually give them all the negatives first. I give them the basic information but I just say “first, watch the videos” If you think you can take it, if you think you can dedicate the time and energy, come on out. Find a training spot that trains football players and come on out.

We’ve posted some insane trash talk videos from games. What’s the best trash talk you’ve ever heard or said in a game?

LZ: We were playing Omaha one game and it was obvious none of the women wanted the ball. This one girl went for a pass but it was obvious she didn’t want to catch it. Adrian walked right up to her and said “you didn’t want to catch that, did you?” It’s not the harshest thing I’ve ever heard but in the moment it was one of the funniest. Most of the trash talk are cheap shots, usually focused on a girl’s looks.

AP: I’m not about making fun of people. I’ll cuss you out though.

Watch Saturday, May 23, as the Atlanta Steam take on the Chicago Bliss at 9pm ET/8 CT on Fuse.