Editor’s note: This is the third of a three-part series on women’s football.
Ronald Kimmick raised his daughter to be a football fan. Whether it was the parties, the gear or the games, and being without a son, Kristen Kimmick was going to do everything with him.
She loved every second of it.
Kristen Kimmick, founder of Bills Mafia Babes Facebook group
Kristen Kimmick, founder of the “Bills Mafia Babes” Facebook group. Provided photo
She recalls how loud her Orchard Park home would be on game days, with an 8-year-old girl screaming and cheering as she watched the NFL. Kimmick was infatuated with football in a way most young women, in her eyes, did not have the freedom or support to be. But under her father’s roof, Sundays were a spectacle. In a way, however, every other day of the week served as a ticking clock for when she could be true to herself again.
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As the founder of Bills Mafia Babes, the largest NFL women’s fan group with more than 46,000 members on its private Facebook page, she knows that girls are not supposed to love football. But their passion is nothing new. Through the nonprofit group she founded in 2016, she provides a space for female Bills fans to express their interest without judgment or repercussion, all while changing the way female football fandom is defined.
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For Kimmick, it only feels natural.
“I was raised to pursue what I’m passionate about,” she said. “We, women, really do love this game. And we can do anything. … So why not me?”
The inspiration came after years of being told the sport wasn’t for her, despite growing up in a community where football seems to dance through the air like the leaves during the fall. But she, like many girls, was told she should find different ways to spend her time.
As she grew older, she would get pushback when she’d talk about the Bills on message boards or in fan groups. Her interest in communicating her sports opinions is not out of the norm. There are thousands of social media groups created for that purpose. But the major NFL fan pages are dominated by a male presence.
So when she’d express her thoughts on Stevie Johnson or Fred Jackson, she would be met frequently with messages questioning why she cared or encouraging her to pursue more feminine interests.
It frustrated the lifelong Buffalonian that the same strides sports such as the NBA, which had distinct marketing campaigns tailored to women, weren’t being made by the NFL.
Part of that comes from there being no distinct equivalent for women to play football, but also an underlying sentiment that it is a violent pastime. Women are fragile, and they should not be interested in hitting one another, joked Ashleigh Dopp, another member of the Mafia Babes.
kristen kimmick bills mafia babes
Bills Mafia Babes founder Kristen Kimmick is seen at the AFC Championship between the Bills and Kansas City Chiefs on Jan. 26 in Kansas City, Mo. Her father’s ashes are in the necklace she’s wearing. Courtesy
of Kristen
Kimmick
“There’s this perception that the sport isn’t necessarily for women,” she said. “I hate that. This is what I love. And I would never stop loving this sport and the Bills.”
Backed by a similar unwavering interest in the Bills, Kimmick reached out to about 40 similarly minded friends and started the Facebook group that runs today. Gathering members was challenging at first. As the Bills improved with the arrival of Josh Allen, though, more women were inclined to express their interest in the team (and Allen, for that matter). To that point, the location helped, as Buffalo sponsors a uniquely passionate fanbase in the second-smallest NFL market behind the Green Bay Packers. There is a tightness to the community that helped spread knowledge of the group’s existence in a way larger cities would struggle to sustain.
Nine years later, Kimmick’s brainchild is thriving, peaking at 46,300 members and adding over 300 in recent weeks with Bills training camp underway. Kimmick was clear that she never feels inclined to turn anyone away. Those who click the scarlet “join group” button may be the same as she once was, feeling segregated, an outlier within their football fandom.
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She doesn’t like the term “safe space,” as she believes it implies women do not persevere, but to an extent, that’s what she wants to provide others. Because it wasn’t there for her. Kimmick has ground rules, though, to ensure that the group remains similar to her original vision despite being 15 times the size of the town where her interest first sparked, Orchard Park.
“I think we’re very intentional with the space we’re providing,” she said. “While we want to empower women to express their passion for the Bills, we need it to be a structured place. … People need to feel comfortable to share what they want. It’s also not a business.”
That’s where the guidelines start, which Kimmick has plastered on the front of the page. Those who join are to be kind and respectful, but they also can’t post anything political or attempt to sell anything. Similar groups frequently dissolve into marketplaces, so Kimmick and other administrators vet what members post. It’s a fan group for female fans to be fans. Nothing more, nothing less, she said.
But as it expanded, it became a little more.
The charitable efforts of the Buffalo fan base are well known. The Cincinnati Bengals defeated the Baltimore Ravens in the final week of the 2017 regular season, sending the Bills to the playoffs for the first time in 17 years. As a result, Buffalo fans donated to the charities of choice for Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton and receiver Tyler Boyd, who hooked up for the game-winning touchdown.
There have been many similar efforts since with opposing players, but Kimmick decided it would be valuable to differentiate the Mafia Babes, while also ingratiating them to the Bills. Kimmick transformed the group into a nonprofit, creating a defined schedule of charities it would support, all of which are selected by Buffalo players.
“I think any Buffalonian has that charitable sense to them,” she said. “We wanted to express our support for the team in a different way. It’s a good way to get to know players, which is so much easier in Buffalo.”
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Bills quarterback Josh Allen greets fans Monday in Pittsford. As the Bills have improved since Allen’s arrival in 2018, more women have expressed interest in the team. Harry Scull Jr., Buffalo News
She’s right. Tee Forton, another longtime female Bills fan, outlined how the city’s size, similar to the way it helped the Mafia Babes spread, also allows players to become more ingrained in the community. In her eyes, a connection forms. And the Mafia Babes are taking advantage.
They originally started with selecting a player each week of the season whose charity the group would donate to during that week. But that pace was not sustainable, so their system evolved to select six players each year, one every two months, and work more closely with them to promote a cause. Sometimes Kimmick has players reach out to her, or there’s an official pathway through which they connect. She’s not afraid to admit that other times, she slides into players’ direct messages.
“I have no shame,” she said. “But it’s great for creating connections. … And we frequently have players that remember and spread the word, so it’s great for making the group feel connected.”
When the group is donating, it’s traveling to games and finding other ways to spread its message. Kimmick can spend half an hour recounting the times she got stuck in Detroit, traveling for an event with group members and friends, or the scenes from local tailgates. It is easy to hear the pride in her voice, as well, for what she has been able to foster.
From the outside looking in, though, she’s just a slice of a much larger female football pie. There was an 8.1% uptick in NFL viewership by the female 12-17 age group last year, according to Zeta Global, a marketing firm that analyzes viewership trends year-over-year. Women’s interest in the sport is growing among the youngest age ranges, which represents how NFL fan demographics may evolve over the coming years if that continues. And while it may be partially the product of the Taylor Swift effect, which, in short, encapsulates how the performer has drawn many first-time fans into the sport, there is a prevailing belief that women and football are becoming more connected.
“Women have always loved this sport,” said Lyndsey D’Arcangelo, a former women’s sports writer for The Athletic. “But the interest, especially at the professional level, seems to be increasing.”
So Kimmick and the Mafia Babes may be riding a wave of female sports empowerment, but the difference they are making is still noteworthy. For every woman Kimmick’s organization provides an outlet, she can see herself nearly a decade ago, seeking a place to express her fandom.
She thinks the little girl who grew up in love with football, but had to justify her interest, would be proud.
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