I had the opportunity to hear Katie Brown Blackburn, the heir apparent to the Cincinnati Bengals ownership, on Friday at a breakfast for businesswomen. The sold-out room of 350+ women and a few men (?, it's called Biz Women for a reason, guys), learned first hand how challenging and rewarding it can be to run an NFL franchise.

Katie reeled off the 10 best things about her job which included food, being on the SuperBowl committee and watching football/getting paid. Her speech was informative, funny and honest. Having never heard her speak before, she made a fan out of me.

So it is fitting that Katie is one of a handful of women to work at the highest level for NFL teams. The NFL is targeting women, big time, as the fastest growing fan segment for the league. Consider these numbers:

« 375,000 women attend NFL games each weekend
« More than 45 million women watch NFL games each weekend
« More than 1 million girls annually participate in NFL Pepsi Punt, Pass & Kick competition
« More than 10,000 women annually attend NFL Football 101 Workshops for Women
« More women watched the Super Bowl this year (42.2 million) than the Academy Awards (40.2 million)

These are great numbers and it's a smart move by the NFL to go after these women who used to call themselves, "Sunday Football Widows."

And check out the new NFL merchandise for women at www.nfl.com.