"He's nearly an addict," the 25-year-old said.
Last year, the couple not only attended nearly every Grizzly home football game, but also Roberts' husband, a University of Montana pharmacy student, drew up polls and spreadsheets to follow his favorite teams and strategized how to watch four football games at once.
That's why Roberts and friend Beth Simmons, 26, found themselves in the Max and Betty Swanson Grizzly Sky Club at the Adams Center last Wednesday evening, sipping chardonnay while dressed in their maroon and silver.
"I have three football seasons to make it through," Roberts said. "I want to impress the guys."
The inaugural Huddles & Heels Women's Football Clinic, sponsored by the UM Athletic Department, was like preseason training for women. It was a chance to break out the eye black, watch film, throw the ball, and sharpen their pigskin skills before kickoff next fall.
"A lot of women didn't want to sound so silly with their husbands, or they wanted to impress their sons," said Christie Anderson, director of marketing and promotion for the department and organizer of the event. "I feel like my husband sees the game completely different than I do."
The clinic was a Mother's Day gift for some,
a girl's night out for many. Jennifer Bedard's husband was happy to pay the 34-year-old's
$35 registration fee.
"He knew I wanted to learn more," the Hamilton resident said.
Anderson had to finally cut off registration at 260 women, which was way more than she expected.
Unlike men, few if any women suit up for peewee football in the seventh grade or learn plays and formations like high school football players. So, while many of the women at Wednesday's event hold Grizzly season tickets and enjoy watching the sport, few could define a blitz or critique the option play when they first arrived.Football clinics for women are popular across the country. Wake Forest University has offered Football 101 for women for a decade. The University of Nebraska Huskers market their event as the largest in the nation with more than 1,000 participants.
"By the time we are done tonight, you will know more than your husbands or boyfriends," said Montana head coach Bobbie Hauck, who's staff ran the clinic, breaking down plays, positions and terminology, and explaining the "decisions that keep a roof over our children's heads," he joked.
The first couple of coaches talked to the audience as players and not a group of women who had been drinking cocktails. After a while, though, things began to make sense.
The Grizzlies' kickoff team calls itself the "Natural Born Killers," after the 1994 movie starring Woody Harrelson, explained linebackers coach Ty Gregorak. It's the most aggressive play on the field.
"What we are looking for is chaos - crazy guys that run down the field and tackle people, kill people!" Gregorak said, his hyperbolic statement drawing chuckles.
An hour into the presentation, a young intoxicated woman yelled to one of the coaches, "When do we get to see your equipment?" Not a question the coaches typically hear when watching film of blocked field goal attempts.
Eventually, to the sound of cooing women, Griz strong safety Colt Anderson entered the gymnasium wearing a sleeveless Under Armour T-shirt and shorts to help demonstrate what players wear on game day. One woman yelled at the 22-year-old to take off his shirt.
Hauck explained that all 110 Grizzly football players are outfitted with a uniform that costs more than $1,000 and weighs 15 pounds. Each guy has four to five pairs of shoes to accommodate all playing surfaces they encounter.
Some sly women came armed and ready to challenge the knowledge of the coaching staff during the question-and-answer period.
Before the event, Marnie Prigge, 57, of Butte solicited questions from former Butte High School football coach Greg Salo.
"I wanted it to look like we knew something about football," she said. Except Prigge already knows a lot about football.
Dressed as blind referees with sun glasses, mustaches and nametags with the phrase, "You can't call 'em if you can't see 'em," Prigge and two friends - Mikki Rydell of Great Falls and Marissa Newman of Butte - gave themselves nicknames for the evening: "Dewey," "Cheatem" and "Howe," (Do we, Cheat 'em and How), the gag law firm name first used by the Three Stooges.
The three seasoned veterans of Grizzly games and tailgate parties rarely miss a home contest - or a chance to have fun.
"We can't be one of the crowd," Newman said. "We had to do something different."
Some women intermittently snuck up to the Grizzly Sky Club to catch the last few minutes of "American Idol," when David Cook was announced the winner.
Everyone then headed out to Washington-Grizzly Stadium, through the tunnel players use to enter the field, to run the team's most basic offensive and defensive plays.
Not even the cool breeze and light rain drowned the women's enthusiasm. Each took turns chucking the football several yards into a net. Though no one was successful - except Hauck, of course - many came close.
"Coming through the tunnel was the best part," Suzie Teafoe said. "You know they come through here and they are pumped up to kick some opponent butt!"
Teafoe, 48, loves football, but
it's not what attracted her to the clinic.
The event was a fundraiser, as well as a tutorial, with proceeds going to the Guardian Angel Foundation, a local organization that provides money for cancer patients' out-of-pocket expenses while undergoing treatment.
It wasn't long ago that Teafoe received financial help from the foundation to cover gas expenses for the many trips the Seeley Lake mother was making to Missoula to take her 22-year-old son to his chemotherapy treatments.
Her son was diagnosed with cancer in November, two months after his best friend died of leukemia.
"Funds were tight," said the Seeley Lake Elementary School secretary, who attended the football clinic with three of her colleagues. "That (gift) meant so much to me."
Today, Teafoe's son has been cancer-free for two months, and this was her way of giving back.
Then there were women like Mona Nicely, who attended not to impress her husband or open communication lines with men, but just for herself.
"It's for me," said the single
35-year-old who attended the clinic with two friends in the same fashion they would any Griz home game - just the gals. The three met playing city league softball and have been enthusiastic sports fans since.
"After the last (Griz) game, we get together and cry in our beers," said Tammi Grimes of Frenchtown.
The trio keeps an off-season countdown to the season opener. There are only 104 days left, Griz football fans.
Reporter Chelsi Moy can be reached at 523-5260 or at chelsi.moy@missoulian.com.
Photographer Michael Gallacher can be reached at 523-5270 or at mgallacher@missoulian.com.
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