National Football League

Groupies share secrets on website

Published Dec. 31, 2010 11:05 p.m. ET

foxsports

Editor's note: Quoted material reproduced as posted online.

In the world of sports groupies, it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that bling.

Since the Internet’s inception, women have been gabbing about celebrity crushes in online forums, taking the girl-talk to chat rooms or celebrity-based blogs.
As technology advances, women who dream of getting close – really close – to famous and wealthy men are using the World Wide Web to transform fantasy into reality.

On a site called “Baller Alert,” women share strategies and trade techniques for seducing that fabulously rich athlete. (Minimum-salary rookies and journeymen need not apply.) And merely catching his eye isn’t enough. It’s equally important to loosen his wallet. How else are you going to find yourself showered with designer handbags, diamond jewelry and luxury cars?

Using social networking tools such as Twitter and Facebook, these groupies are going high tech to fulfill their naked ambition of coming between a wealthy young man and his money.

A Brooklyn woman who goes by the handle "Angelina Yee" has an expensive Rolex around her wrist and a stylish $3,000 Gucci bag slung over her shoulder. An NFL star — a player in the North who hails from down South — lavished her with these little luxuries, but now — after finally bedding him — she wants a car.

"With christmas coming, I think now is as good of time as any to throw that out there lol . . . Nothing major, just a CTS or a 535 or something . . . 40-50 thousand range," she writes in a post on Baller Alert.

"I actually don't think he'll object but i don't know how to go about this, especially with football season coming to an end soon and him leaving to go back to his home town."

So, what's a girl to do if gift hint-dropping fails?

"I would say in a very deep seductive voice, look him in his eyes and then say, 'baby you know what I want you to do for me? Buy me a 2011 (insert the car you want there). Then smile lick your lips or wink your eye and go on with your business," advises Zaria 22.

"I usually do this [over] dessert or Ice Cream. Something that brings attention to the mouth [and] looks sexy."

Unlike the aspiring mistress of yesteryear, who sharpened her elbows to sidle up to her favorite sportsman in a crowded venue, today's tech-obsessed girls discuss outfits, strategies and even positions before the first encounter even occurs.

Today, players are less likely to meet girls at a strip club or bar than they are on Facebook — as was the case for two women who linked up and went on to bear children with New York Jets father of nine Antonio Cromartie.

And beware if you don't come through with the BMW. The groupies are quick to shame, posting pictures of themselves in hotel rooms for wives to find, or revealing intimate details about someone's off-field performance.

'Official Groupie," a rosy-cheeked Florida-based beauty, coaches inexperienced groupies on BallerAlert. First in her playbook: Chase after the dumb jock.

"See, the smarter ones are on to your gold digging groupie (self). The smart ones can smell your money-hungry (self) a mile away," the vixen posted in a three-part series, "How to Land a Baller."

"You know the ones that can barely speak well in an interview," Official Groupie instructs. "Yes … him! Write his name down. Google him!

"Start to focus on the ones who have criminal records, many baby mommas and plenty of kids, and have 'advisors' (i.e. cousins/homeboys that handle their business/money). They'll be easy to recognize cause they always look 'lost' and 'slow.' He barely makes eye contact. He got a short attention span and easily gets distracted. He gotta think about the words he wanna use before he speaks and still mispronounce the words. He does stupid/dumb (stuff) right in front of you. Yeah, him!"

On this ever-expanding online manual, girls who want to score with an athlete learn to blend old and new groupie tactics when it comes to bumping into a player.

BallerAlert's "Eleven8," for example, suggests memorizing the layout of the W Hotel in Hollywood, where, she said, the NBA stars will rest their heads during February's All Star Weekend in Los Angeles.

Then modern girls equipped with a smartphone can take advantage of Eleven8's "Twitter-holic Trick."

" ... most ballers control their own Twitter accounts. Know their away schedules! When they're going to be in LA this is the perfect time to turn on your cyber charm and tweet your favorite baller until he takes notice," she writes.

"Most ballers usually follow groupies [on Twitter] right before they hit the city this way they can keep the conversation isolated. Once he's in your [private] box you can get the digits and the hotel room number."

Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Dwayne Bowe dubbed this type of pre-arranged rendezvous "importing," telling ESPN magazine in May that senior players compiled a starting lineup of groupies drafted from Facebook and Twitter before away games and flew the women out to the team's hotels.

Time and time again, the public's prying eyes discover stars' exploits on social network sites. Bloggers at TheDirty.com make a sport of outing groupies.

The gabby girls on BallerAlert, however, tend to hush their specific dalliances, though some of the groupies dished in a compendium called the "bad baller list." This do-not-date list discusses cringe-worthy bedroom behavior and faulty equipment.

While that warning list reads like a private conversation between best friends, the fame-enamored women adhere to a certain code, which, if broken, could ruin their game.

High-tech groupies, like Yee, simply stick to blind items and advice trades.

After spending time with her baller, the Brooklyn groupie wondered how other girls felt about being a "teamer."

"I'm seeing chics that mess with two, three or four different players on the same team and trying to figure out how they pull it off . . . or if the guys just don't care lol," she wrote.

So far, there's no news of a bow-wrapped Cadillac parked outside of her condo. But, Angelina did solicit advice from her online girls earlier this month when her mystery man incurred a "season compromising" injury.

"Mrs. Denbeigh" offered pampering tips and tellingly added, "still keep it sexy with minimal clothes around the house and naughty pics when you're away. As long as it's not a career-ending injury, play your position."

BallerAlert girls share relationship advice.

Problem: An NFLer dropped his digits, but now I don’t know how to stand out in the stands!

Solution: On game day pair jeans with a tight team tee. “You need to go to the kids section so it can fit really cute,” suggests “Miss Bling.” Don’t forget to pack after-party clothes. “Get your (self) to the after party and be the sexiest (woman) in there! Sexy not slutty!”

Problem: I don’t know how to contact my favorite sports star.

Solution: Try Twitter or add Kik Messenger to your phone.

“Athletes, as dumb as they are, have used this forum to add new (women) to their roster,” writes “Mrs. Denbeigh.” “It’s the way to get a number without actually giving a number, and arrange rendezvous via direct message.”

Problem: Can this pro athlete afford me?

Solution: First, check that baller’s salary. “According to NBA.com the minimum annual rookie salary is $442K so don’t sleep on the rookies,” one groupie advises.