Women may be strong, but women are also tired.
All women in sports want is to be given a fair shake. All women in sports want is to be treated exactly the same as their male counterparts. All women in sports want is to be acknowledged as humans instead of simply pieces of meat for the male gaze.
Instead, the male-dominant sports industry appears to be insistent that women’s only place in sports is to serve that very gross male gaze.
The biggest story in sports this week is supposed to be the WNBA Finals between the Phoenix Mercury and Chicago Sky – a Finals that, as of this penning, the Sky lead the Mercury 2-1 leading into Game 4 at Wintrust Arena.
Instead, sports was rocked by a scandal involving former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden – and how he has had a history of making homophobic, racist and sexist remarks. The Raiders are owned by Mark Davis – the same man who purchased the Las Vegas Aces prior to the 2021 WNBA season.
Among the distasteful remarks Gruden made? Urging a fellow football coach in Jeff Fisher to not draft a gay player in Michael Sam, decrying the idea that women can be referees, saying that NFLPA head DeMaurice Smith had lips that resembled Michelin tires, referring to both then-Vice President Joe Biden and current NFL commissioner Roger Goodell as the p-word and criticizing the NFL for allowing players to kneel (ala Colin Kaepernick) for the National Anthem.
Perhaps, the most puke-worthy act committed by Gruden (and others in his inner circle) was circulating topless photos of women with Washington Football Team owner Dan Snyder and former WFT president Bruce Allen. Among the women? Cheerleaders for the Washington Football Team, dubbed the “First Ladies of Football.”
Washington no longer has a cheerleading squad.
This is another scandal that begs a simple and fundamental question: Why is it so hard for sports organizations to do right by women?
Why are men so threatened by the idea that women may be simply as passionate about sports as they are (if not moreso?)
Does the sports industry as a whole still not understand the influence women have? Women have increasing purchasing power in many households and a highly sizable number of the sports audience is women. Yet – that clearly is still yet to be reflected in sports coverage or sports radio.
These sports leagues such as the NFL and others are ready, willing and able to take the money that women spend on sports, but as the Gruden-Washington Football Team scandal shows, women are nothing more than dollar signs to the men running these leagues.
We are talking about a Washington Football Team that has been under intense criticism (and investigation) for its workplace culture and its hideous treatment of its cheerleaders as well as other women who went to work in Ashburn, Virginia. There are allegedly 650,000 more emails that the NFL uncovered via its investigation of Washington and none of them are seemingly on the verge of being released.
The New York Times recently reported on one of the top executives in the league in Jeff Pash and he has also been revealed to have made xenophobic comments in relation to the Latinx community.
Roger Goodell needs to do the right thing and release every single last email relating to Snyder, Allen, the Washington Football Team, and its ex-cheerleaders. By not doing so, the NFL is effectively rubberstamping the behavior that was taking place for years in Ashburn under Snyder’s tenure. It is basically telling women who work in the league and women who watch the league, “Thanks for the money, now go make me a sandwich.”
The NFL might as well scrap its entire month-long breast cancer awareness initiative because the email scandal engulfing the Washington Football Team and the NFL is proving that is nothing more than public relations posturing. How this scandal is being handled proves the real feelings of NFL brass towards its women audience – and its women employees.
Goodell’s clearly scared to release the emails because the league is sitting on what could be one of the biggest scandals it has ever faced. But releasing the emails will at least prove that the NFL is actually committed to changing its culture and making it a more inclusive NFL across all 32 teams, its media properties and its New York headquarters.
When the WNBPA negotiated its landmark collective bargaining agreement with the league in early 2020 (pre-Covid), its slogan was “Bet on Women.” The NFL needs to take notes. Instead of making women more uncomfortable, it too needs to Bet on Women.
