Texas is a sports-centric state, and nowhere more so than Dallas. It's also a state that loves its dynasties — think the Cowboys of the 1990s.
But the players from one North Texas football dynasty still deliver on the field, even if most fans have never heard of them.
Meet the Texas Elite Spartans, a team on one of the most dominant runs in women's sports — winning six out of the seven championships in Women's National Football Conference history.
"It hasn't been easy," Odessa Jenkins, WNFC founder and Spartans head coach said. "You have to be resistant to be in the Dallas-Fort Worth sports market in general. So I think, it's less about being traditional and more about just the competition."
Now the league hopes success on the field translates into something bigger: a sustainable business model that allows women to make a living playing professional tackle football.
The Spartans defeated the San Diego Rebellion 34-14 last month at The Star in Frisco for their most recent league title. But for Jenkins, the most significant milestone came when news dropped after the game.
The 2026 WNFC Championship drew 1.35 million unique viewers on ESPN2 — the estimated number of distinct viewers who viewed the game that day. That's the largest audience in league history. League officials said streaming was 42% higher than last year's championship, and the broadcast beat out a Savannah Bananas game to secure the top slot on ESPN2 that day.
Susie Petrowski, ESPN's vice president of women's sports programming and ESPNW, sees the numbers as proof women's tackle football can engage a national viewership when given prominent television exposure.
"We're making women's sports more accessible and putting them in some of the most premium positions possible," Petrowski said. "What we have seen is certainly holistic growth, from a revenue standpoint, from a viewership standpoint, from an investment standpoint. More than anything, I focus on the sustainability of the women's sports ecosystem."
The WNFC fits ESPN's broader strategy of investing in women's sports as long-term business partnerships rather than short-term programming, Petrowski said. The network entered its partnership with the WNFC in 2025 and recently extended the agreement with a multi-year renewal, something the network says signals confidence in the league's long-term growth.
Petrowski said ESPN's approach to women's sports is building sustainable partnerships rather than treating leagues as charitable investments.
"This is about building businesses," Petrowski said. "The best thing that we can do is build sustainable businesses so that in the next 20 years we're continuing to grow the ecosystem."
Jenkins launched the WNFC in 2019 when the sport was largely a pay-to-play model. Her goal was to transform women's tackle football into a professional league built on franchise ownership, national media exposure and commercial investment, she said.
Despite growing television audiences and sponsorships, that remains a dream for most WNFC athletes.
Jamie Locke, lead defensive player for the Spartans, spends her days at work and her nights at practice.
"I teach during the day," Locke said. "I coached middle school football and girls flag football. After that practice, then I would drive to Texas Elite practice."
Michelle Angel, Championship MVP quarterback, works at a family business while dedicating evenings and weekends to football.
"Usually we've got practice Wednesday nights for three to four hours," Angel said. "We have practice on Saturdays and Sundays for Elite, three to four hours, and then your regular training on all the other days."
Jenkins spent a decade playing women's football while building a career in the technology industry, and said she became convinced the sport needed a stronger business foundation and better competition.
Today, the league is seeking investors, sponsorships and expanded media rights with the goal of eliminating pay-to-play costs and eventually providing athletes with a living wage.
Angel, the Spartans' quarterback, said the team's culture has been central to its sustained success.
"We are a team of grinders and people who care about each other," Angel said. "If you have any dynasty, you've got people who are in alignment, and they love each other and they love the game."
That culture is what persuaded her to remain with the organization after moving to Texas from California.
"I don't have family that lives out here in Texas, so this team is my home away from home," Angel said. "If I look to my left and my right, the person is just as crazy as me. They want it just as bad."
League officials also see rapid growth in women's flag football as an opportunity to expand the talent pipeline. More states have sanctioned girls flag football at the high school level, the NCAA has designated women's flag football as an Emerging Sport, and the sport is scheduled to make its Olympic debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
Locke said participation has grown dramatically in the programs she coaches.
"The flag football team was all girls, all high school girls," she said. "We even had one girl join the middle school boys team before she went on to play flag football in high school."
For Jenkins, those developments represent more than increased participation.
The objective, she said, is to create a professional league where future athletes no longer have to divide their time between full-time careers and football.
The Spartans have already built a dynasty. The WNFC's next challenge is building an industry that allows the next generation of women to make careers out of playing professional tackle football.
For ESPN, that means continuing to expand the league's visibility.
For Jenkins, it means creating a business where championships are no longer won by athletes balancing full-time jobs, but by professionals earning a living playing the game.
"When you make it accessible, people tune in," Petrowski said.
Alexsis Jones is a reporter and producer for KERA News. Got a tip? Email Alexsis at ajones@kera.org.
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