League removes its lingerie

THE GARTERS go but the booty shorts stay. The midriff-baring tops stay, too.

Along with a uniform tweak, officials announced in January that the Lingerie Football League, which was started in 2009 by Mitchell Mortaza, had been renamed the Legends Football League. Sexy-sounding team names such as the Philadelphia Passion and the Cleveland Crush won't change, though.

"I like the name change because the emphasis is on the football now," Passion coach Chandler Brown said. "It's not so much on what they're wearing."

And more on what they're doing, apparently.

"We no longer need lingerie in the title," he said. "There's an audience that respects these ladies for the athletes they are."

Yeah, but I was watching some game tape from last season, and it seems to me that the women could use some knee-length tights like male football players wear. There's altogether too much bare backside going on when they're piled on top of each other.

Capri-length leggings, anyone?

The Legends league's 12 teams start playing again in June; the regular season is four games long. All the hotness gets under way for the Philadelphia Passion on June 8, when the team takes on the Baltimore Charm, in Baltimore. Home games are at PPL Park, the Philadelphia Union soccer team's home stadium, in Chester.

The league schedule used to be timed to coincide with the National Football League's. Marketers hope that the change will get the Legends' players more notice.

Can't have too many eyes on those thighs.

- Jenice Armstrong