U.S. women's national team star Carli Lloyd 'seriously considering' NFL offer?

PHILADELPHIA -- After her 55-yard field goal at a recent Eagles-Ravens joint practice went viral, U.S. women’s soccer team star Carli Lloyd told Fox Sports that she is "seriously considering" an offer that her trainer James Galanis said Lloyd received from an anonymous NFL team.

"I am having discussions with my husband (Brian Hollins) and James about the reality of playing in the NFL," the Delran, Pennsylvania, native told Fox. "They both feel that I could do it and should consider it. So I’m seriously considering it, as it’s a challenge. I would probably enjoy it."

Galanis started the hype train by telling Fox earlier that at least three NFL teams had approached Lloyd to come to their training camps. One of them offered her a place on the team for a preseason game Thursday night, but Lloyd turned it down because the U.S. women are playing at Lincoln Financial Field at the same hour.

The friendly against Portugal has sold more than 45,000 tickets, setting a record for the biggest attendance for a stand-alone U.S. team friendly.

The U.S. team’s four World Cups and four Olympic titles have done a lot to put the lack of gender equality in professional sports in the spotlight. That spotlight would become brighter if Lloyd breaks into America’s biggest (and arguably most male-dominated) sport of all.

"We are thinking about what it would do to the sport itself, every sport at every level," Galanis told Fox. "Knowing Carli, this is why it is enticing for her. It is the next thing she can conquer. That’s why we have had half a dozen conversations about it in less than a week."

Galanis’ refusal to name any of the NFL teams in question raised skeptics’ eyebrows. But Lloyd’s remarks raise the stakes.

"This has all been so wild," she told Fox. "Can’t believe how big this has become."