As the father of 2 girls and a huge sports fan my common ground with my girls are their favorite athletes, our trips to sporting events, and their own games. I'm fairly certain that they have seen more live sporting events than most kids their age and hope that my love for sports has been transferred to them.
In the past dozen or so years I have seen female opportunities in sports skyrocket. Those chances haven't come without controversy either. The Patriots locker room incident of about 20 years ago was one of the darker incidents but there are others. Does Joe Namath try and plant one on Tony Siragusa if he is the sideline reporter instead of Suzy Kolber? Does Michael David Barrett shoot peephole video of Ed Werder? Does Brett Favre text pictures of his penis to Sal Paolantonio? My guess is No! on all accounts.
I love the fact that these opportunites are available and that my girls will have the chance to pursue a career in that direction if they choose to do so. I also hope that as a parent I will do my job to inform them about some of the less than flattering parts of life. I don't shelter them and I try not to avoid controversial topics when they are presented. Life is not all sunshine and rainbows and I get a kick out of people who try to raise their children as if it were. Eventually they will leave home and be subjected to some of the trash that society harbors, I'd much rather I explain it to them and teach them based on the incident than hide it from them and act like it doesn't exist.
The real point here is brought about because of a recent incident between female reporter Ines Sainz and members of the NY Jets. In my opinion the blame here lies about 80% on the Jets and about 20% on Sainz. Her past work experience has been somewhat less than on the up and up and her attire at times has been less than professional. Does that mean she deserves inappropriate behavior because of it? No not at all. At the same time players who have seen her work in the past may have been expecting a similar type of story Saturday at Jets practice. She can't turn it on and off depending on the day and for the most part she has turned it off in previous assignments. The Jets were still way out of line and should be reprimanded in some form.
Then today on the radio Clinton Portis makes some really ignorant comments but they were most likely the way he felt. The NFL and the Redskins catch wind of what he said and he was immediately apologizing. This angers me almost as much as the sexist crap that still exists in sports as a whole. If Portis said it and truly felt that way why is he apologizing. His apology is hollow, it means nothing. His comments were more sincere than his apology was. The comments, no matter how ignorant you or I think they were were his sentiment or opinion. His apology was something he was told to do. We already know how he feels and its not sorry. People offend way too easy these days and athletes apologize way too much. An athlete's apology is almost as common as a sunrise. Gone are the days of speaking your mind, now everything has to be said so that no one is put off by the words. Its really annoying.
Do you think Tiger Woods is sorry? He's sorry he got caught not sorry for his actions. Do you think the MLB players were sorry for steroids? Again sorry they got caught. If Ben Roethlisberger is sorry for his behavior why has it been alleged to happen multiple times? Because he can just apologize with some BS that he says in front of a camera and all is forgiven. Do you think John Rocker was sorry? No he was a backwoods redneck who really was racist and anti-gay. Was Floyd Mayweather Jr really sorry for his racist remarks towards Pacquiao? Hell no! Somebody told him to apologize or those comments might cost him millions down the road. Is Reggie Bush sorry for the storm that surrounds him stemming from incidents in 2005? Nope because he got paid, his family got paid, and he is still getting paid. Almost as annoying as these empty apologies are the apologies that come with the promise that with some spiritual guidance or divine intervention these "model" citizens will be better people.
Walks like a duck, talks like a duck, damn good chance its a duck! Come on people! The actions or words of the person is a better indication of who/what the person is than the apology that comes after to squash the storm and appease the masses.
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