Forget the quarterback’s usual drill, all that yelling "Ready! Blue 18! Blue 18!" This time let’s try something different, the coach tells them. This time, at the first sound out of the quarterback’s mouth, the line will burst into action, the receivers will sprint away, the backs will sweep or block or charge up the middle.

Very clever, coach. Defenses get used to drawn-out snap counts. A football team that sets up, says one word and charges forward in unison, slamming surprised opponents aside before they even realize what’s happening, well, that team could gain some serious yardage. Maybe even score.

This is just practice, of course, so there will be no touchdowns tonight. There aren’t even any end zones – the practice "field" is the wooden floor of a high school gym. Only a few of the women on the Eugene Edge even have helmets yet, and the pads will be several weeks in arriving. That’s okay, though, because the women know the playbook, the quarterback has a strong arm, and they’re all willing to work hard.

The players trot to their positions. Lisa Crawford is playing tight end tonight, crouched in a three-point stance on the right side of the line, ostensibly waiting with the rest of her teammates for the quarterback’s all-important first sound.

What will it be? "Hut"? "Hey"? "Go"?

"Ready!" shouts the quarterback, taking the ball from the center. Crawford stays put. So does the rest of the line. The coach’s clever idea also goes nowhere. If this happened in a game instead of a low-key drill, the defense would trample the placid line, smelling blood, while Crawford and her cohorts wondered what the hell happened. The entire team runs a punishment lap across the gym.

"First sound?" Crawford says to the coach when she finishes the lap. She elongates the words with her Texas twang. "I thought you said, ‘First down.’ I was like, ‘What’s first down got to do with anything?’ "

Don’t doubt for a second that Crawford knows all about first downs. She grew up in Tenaha, a football-crazy town in football-crazy East Texas, and regularly joined in neighborhood games. High school and college gridiron matches were as important as church on Sunday, which just happens to be the day the Dallas Cowboys play. She spent every Friday night during football season in the stands, even if it wasn’t her school’s team on the field. She’s always loved the game – the strategy, the athletic skill, the beauty of a well-executed offensive play, the exhilaration of watching a defense derail an opponent’s best-laid plans. And all her life she thought, I could do that.

Now she’s starting on offense and defense -- the roster’s a little thin -- for the Edge, a team she co-owns with another player. Like a growing number of women nationwide, she’s getting ready to play a sport that’s always been off-limits to females: tackle football.