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Football History
In 2002, Kim Grodus was watching the Detroit Lions on Monday night football when a commercial advertising try-outs for the women's professional football team, Detroit Danger was aired. With some convincing by friends, she went the next day to the last rounds of try-outs among several hundred other women. She was approached to participate in quarterback drills, and the rest became women's professional football history. |
The Detroit Danger became Detroit Demolition in 2003 and went on to play the National Championship at the largest and most well attended game in the history of women's full contact football with over 7,000 fans in attendance. Hosted at Vanderbilt University stadium, also the largest venue to ever host a women’s football game until that point, Grodus was named the game MVP after scoring the game-winning touchdown with a quarterback sneak against Pensacola Power with only 5:15 remaining in the game.
Grodus and the NWFA saw increased growth and success being featured in more than 250 major publications and TV networks including ESPN, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, CBS and NBC news stations, The New York Times, Nickelodeon, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post and other local media. The league’s website had over 3.5 million hits in April of 2003, and by the next year, the 2004 national championship was played at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium in Louisville, KY, adding to the veracity of women's professional football, where Grodus lead the Detroit Demolition to a win against Oklahoma City.
The Detroit Demolition went on to play at Ford Field, home of the NFL's Detroit Lions. She was cited by The Oakland Press for having led the team to three titles by that point in 2005. The Detroit Demolition was then drawing an astounding 2,300 to 5,600 dedicated fans at each of its home games. By 2006, Demolition was lauded by its coach, Tony Blankeship, as having the best showing by any football team in the world, whether pro or semi-pro with a win-loss record of 45-1 since 2002, with Grodus serving as a veteran co-captain.
In 2007, Grodus partnered with her teammate, linebacker Tammy Lowrey-Ridgley during the off-season as co-general managers to keep the team moving forward despite budget issues. She served as IWFL delegate, and is credited for helping the Detroit Demolition continue as a pro team after her pleas for help on media reached Jeff Rose and his son Kevin, who formed R&R Entertainment to run the team. Due to popularity, the Detroit Demolition enjoyed a broadcast partnership and sponsorship with Bright House Networks who made games available on Local on Demand.
Grodus and the NWFA saw increased growth and success being featured in more than 250 major publications and TV networks including ESPN, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, CBS and NBC news stations, The New York Times, Nickelodeon, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post and other local media. The league’s website had over 3.5 million hits in April of 2003, and by the next year, the 2004 national championship was played at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium in Louisville, KY, adding to the veracity of women's professional football, where Grodus lead the Detroit Demolition to a win against Oklahoma City.
The Detroit Demolition went on to play at Ford Field, home of the NFL's Detroit Lions. She was cited by The Oakland Press for having led the team to three titles by that point in 2005. The Detroit Demolition was then drawing an astounding 2,300 to 5,600 dedicated fans at each of its home games. By 2006, Demolition was lauded by its coach, Tony Blankeship, as having the best showing by any football team in the world, whether pro or semi-pro with a win-loss record of 45-1 since 2002, with Grodus serving as a veteran co-captain.
In 2007, Grodus partnered with her teammate, linebacker Tammy Lowrey-Ridgley during the off-season as co-general managers to keep the team moving forward despite budget issues. She served as IWFL delegate, and is credited for helping the Detroit Demolition continue as a pro team after her pleas for help on media reached Jeff Rose and his son Kevin, who formed R&R Entertainment to run the team. Due to popularity, the Detroit Demolition enjoyed a broadcast partnership and sponsorship with Bright House Networks who made games available on Local on Demand.
Grodus retired in 2007 after beating Atlanta in the IWFL Championship game. Since the launch of the NWFA and the IWFL, other women's tackle leagues have modeled themselves from the early successes of these leagues, including the Women's Football Alliance. Any search online for female quarterbacks will show that Grodus' successes are the standard against which other female quarterbacks are compared. No other female quarterback in the history of tackle football has won more National Championships than Kim Grodus.