As a student at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Katie Green is forced to tackle legal assignments and research. When she leaves campus, “tackling” takes on a far different meaning as she suits up for the defense of the Cleveland Fusion – a professional women’s football team.
The Cleveland Fusion is a full-tackle women’s professional football team which plays in the Women’s Football Alliance, a 62-team league of women’s football teams throughout the country. The Fusion plays by National Football league rules, and the team’s slogan, “Real Women. Real Football.” is an accurate portrayal of the hard hitting, fast paced action.
The “real women” part of that slogan is also accurate in describing the females who make up this team. While their professional football playing male counterparts generally count football as their only profession, for Green and her teammates, football is secondary to their full-time jobs or in Green’s case, studies.
Between school work, serving as vice president of the Health Law Society, publications editor of the Journal of Law and Health, and a research assistant in the law library, committing the time to professional football can be a challenge for Green. What football offers is a break from those day-to-day rigors of law school.
“Being out on the football field is a good way to commit torts without being liable for them,” joked Green, as only a future lawyer would.
If her performance on the field is any indication, Green’s ability to find an outlet has been successful. As a starting safety, Green has helped lead the Fusion defense to an 8-0 regular season record and was named WFA second-team All-America.
While Green has just one year left of law school, she plans to continue her football playing days much longer while also starting her career as a lawyer in the Cleveland area. She needs to look no further than her team for a blueprint, as another Fusion player is also a practicing lawyer while her head coach is also a recent law school graduate.
“There are teammates who work at 4 a.m. and put in 12 hour shifts and then come to practice or a game,” explained Green.
“If others can juggle a legal career and being a part of this team I don’t see any reason I couldn’t as well.”