04/19/24
October 20, 2015
SportsFilter: The Tuesday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
Happy birthday, Jigger! The discomfort of your nickname is only matched by your athletic prowess. You were the Ty Cobb of the Pacific Coast League.
posted by rcade at 10:12 AM on October 20, 2015
Colt's punter Pat McAfee explains the fake punt.
posted by MrFrisby at 11:43 AM on October 20, 2015
Statz attended Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he moved from Illinois along with his parents at an early age
Man, New England used to have some decent baseball players back in the day.
posted by yerfatma at 01:51 PM on October 20, 2015
I shoulda posted this a half-hour earlier, but I think today's game decides the ALCS. If Toronto gets rolling on offense that's hard to stop. The Royals will put them in too deep a hole with a 3-1 lead.
posted by rcade at 04:14 PM on October 20, 2015
Manziel's girlfriend said "he hit me a couple of times" during their recent incident, according to police dashcam. I wonder if his time at the Browns is over. The only place a man like that is fit to play is Dallas.
posted by rcade at 06:24 PM on October 20, 2015
The NFL Network showed a bunch of naked Bengal butts Sunday. Could NFL players argue that the requirement to do media interviews while changing in the locker room is sexual harassment?
posted by rcade at 06:28 PM on October 20, 2015
Could NFL players argue that the requirement to do media interviews while changing in the locker room is sexual harassment?
I think there is a legitimate argument to be made. Being mandated to allow camera crews, reporters of both genders, and god knows how many other support staff into an area where you are expected to bathe and change clothes as a precondition to employment has a certain element of harassment to it.
Andrew Whitworth had a few cogent thoughts on the matter.
posted by tahoemoj at 07:09 PM on October 20, 2015
I'm fine with the NFL pushing back interview requests until everyone has their pants on, but I did have to smile at a line in the Whitworth piece: "The 10-year Bengals veteran said he spent all morning thinking of the ridicule that would have gone on with his kids at school, had they been of a certain age." So not just "Someone think of the children", but "Someone think of my hypothetical children if they were different."
posted by yerfatma at 08:49 AM on October 21, 2015
Being mandated to allow camera crews, reporters of both genders, and god knows how many other support staff into an area where you are expected to bathe and change clothes as a precondition to employment has a certain element of harassment to it.
Camera crews, yes. The sex or sexuality of the reporters and other people around shouldn't enter into it.
posted by Etrigan at 08:56 AM on October 21, 2015
The sex or sexuality of the reporters and other people around shouldn't enter into it.
In that sexual harassment is generally defined by a situation that causes unreasonable discomfort in the work place, why on earth not? Are you suggesting that there should reasonably be no more discomfort appearing naked in front of a person of the opposite sex than there is in front of members of one's own? Does that enlightened stance apply equally to female athletes and male reporters? I sense dissonance.
I know that female reporters are only doing their jobs when they enter locker rooms populated by male athletes; whether or not someone is "just doing their job" by being in the locker room reporting is completely irrelevant to the self-consciousness of the naked athlete in question. I like to think we've moved pretty far as a society beyond the cretin "girls can't report sports" mentality, which has no bearing on this issue. A man's discomfort with undressing in front of a female reporter has absolutely zero to do with her competence as a reporter.
posted by tahoemoj at 10:50 AM on October 21, 2015
I wonder if his time at the Browns is over. The only place a man like that is fit to play is Dallas.
When Wade Phillips interviewed for the Texans head coaching vacancy, he told the team they had to take Manziel in the draft. Wade didn't get the job.
Scrolling down the CNN Breaking News front page:
Manziel's girlfriend: "He hit me"
Odom to Kardashian: "I love you"
Am worried that if I reload the page I'll get:
Brittney Griner to Hope Solo: "We're gonna find out"
posted by beaverboard at 11:40 AM on October 21, 2015
It's just a matter of time until a major indie band that calls themselves "Naked Bengal Butts" bursts on the scene and rcade ends up rolling in residuals.
posted by beaverboard at 11:44 AM on October 21, 2015
there should reasonably be no more discomfort appearing naked in front of a person of the opposite sex than there is in front of members of one's own?
Old school society has taught us that men naked in a locker room with men is acceptable yet men naked in a locker room with women not, probably based upon the ideal that all male athletes were heterosexual.
I would propose that today's athlete feels comfortable in the locker room with his/her teammates regardless of sexual orientation, as I feel, but uncomfortable when outsiders are involved be they male or female.
posted by cixelsyd at 11:55 AM on October 21, 2015
The U.S. women's soccer team allows male reporters in their locker room after games and I don't think an issue has been made of it.
It seems to me that the trend in taking sexual harassment more seriously has butt up against the trend of gender equity in locker rooms.
We stopped caring that male athletes might not like to be naked around women, because it was unfair to female reporters to be excluded.
But now we expect the athletes to be naked around everybody, even TV cameras!
I think the best solution is to give them a window of time after games where the media is not allowed in the locker room at all. Lacking that, keep all the cameras out.
posted by rcade at 12:55 PM on October 21, 2015
Assuming you're right, then Whitworth and other athletes' belief that a locker room is no place for reporters and/or cameras is correct. My previous comment addressed only the idea that gender is or should be irrelevant to an individual's discomfort in being seen unclothed.
And the harassment angle of it arises when that discomfort becomes a prerequisite to getting a paycheck.
posted by tahoemoj at 12:59 PM on October 21, 2015
The U.S. women's soccer team allows male reporters in their locker room after games and I don't think an issue has been made of it.
I was always under the assumption that any post-game interviews for international teams (male or female) were done outside of the locker room or in a press conference type setting. I have absolutely nothing to base this on, of course.
posted by goddam at 02:01 PM on October 21, 2015
A female reporter in the Patriots' locker room in 1990 caused this brouhaha. Patriots owner at the time, Victor Kiam, referred to the reporter, Lisa Olson, as "a classic bitch", and later at a sports banquet made a joke about the incident, asking what the Iraqis and Lisa Olson had in common. The answer was that they had both seen Patriot missiles up close. Kiam later apologized, but Olson sued the team, Kiam, the players involved, and other Patriots' officials. The suit was settled for an undisclosed amount.
The point is that the presence of female reporters in a male locker room has been the norm for a while. The presence of cameras while the players are changing seems to invite the unintentional televising of X-rated content. The female reporters will keep their gaze above shoulder level, and all will be well.
In my younger, drunker, stupider days, I practiced the technique of looking a stripper directly in the eyes, never letting my vision move to other areas of the lady. It drove them nuts.
posted by Howard_T at 11:00 PM on October 21, 2015
I was always under the assumption that any post-game interviews for international teams (male or female) were done outside of the locker room or in a press conference type setting. I have absolutely nothing to base this on, of course.
Apart from years of visual evidence from watching international football. I don't think I've ever seen a locker room interview at that level, either. Always a bit more stage managed.
posted by owlhouse at 12:49 AM on October 22, 2015
Happy birthday to one of the patron saints of Sportsfilter!