How Should ESPN Cover LSU Story?

Oh, you sure can. "AN OraNGe WItH SemanTics"

Rearrange the capital letters, and you get the dark, red, and crisp kind from that lovely Northwest state with the space needle.

 

My head hurts.

 

To further back up what Armchair was saying, look at what a big deal it was when Ozzie Guillen said something offensive to gays. He got blasted by every card-carrying ACLU member/sports columnist in the country. Just for using a word. Not for an inappropriate relationship with his 19-year-old outfielder or whatever. How many of those same columnists are taking Pokey to task? I'd say damn few.

Most of our big-time holier-than-thou sports columnists are frauds. They will take on a cause they know that 90 percent of their fellow journalists will agree with and then they act like they're out there alone taking a stand. Wow, that's really brave.

Dare to write something that's not politically correct, but is ethically correct. Sports journalism will be all the better for it. That kind of thing used to happen in this business once in a while. But not now. And don't look for ESPN to show any backbone. Just isn't convenient for the brand name.

 

In the Times gamer today writer used 4 different euphenisms. They have twisted themselves into a pretzel to avoid a real discussion on topic.

inappropriate conduct ( cursed ref?)

improper relationships

inappropriate behavior

reckless behavior ( did she drive her motor cycle without helmet)

 

I hope no one is surprised by the lack of critical columns on the subject. (I'm not but it still bugs the crap out of me.)

Look no further than how our legal system treats a woman who sleeps with her student vs. a male who sleeps with his -- GENERALLY.

 

I probably agree with your posts more often than anyone's on this board, but I really don't see how coverage of the Pokey Chatman saga is great for the women's game. It's certainly not making me or anyone I know more interested in watching. In that sense, I don't think it makes a lick of difference whether you cover it "warts and all" or "Rah Rah."

 

Perhaps Womens sports is homophobic for a reason. I wounder if Selena will write a Sexual harrassment in Sports column.


SPORTS OF THE TIMES; A Player Serves Notice To Homophobic Sports Culture
By SELENA ROBERTS
Penn State Coach Rene Portland's gaydar is obviously haywire.

As the self-described Mommy Coach of Happy Valley, Portland has cropped hair, wears boxy game-day suits and squats on the basketball sideline in unladylike poses, but she knows a lesbian when she sees one.

Portland was sure Jennifer Harris was gay, and her player did not wear a tool belt. The coach allegedly urged Harris to act feminine, sleuthed around her love life and ultimately dismissed Harris from the team in 2005 for her sexual orientation.

Except that Harris said she wasn't gay. If Portland whiffed on Harris, did she miss on John Amaechi, too?

He was right under her nose. Same gym, same facility. As a brutish center with a British accent, Amaechi played on the Penn State men's team in the mid-1990s before a five-year career in the National Basketball Association where he was known for his manly effort and wit.

Straight as a free-throw line, Portland probably thought.

Wrong again. Amaechi will announce he is gay in a new book, ''Man in the Middle,'' from ESPN Books, ESPN.com said yesterday, commencing what will certainly be a rainbow week of synergy on Disney's wide world of ESPN.

Bloggers knew the scoop. Amaechi's outing has been circulating in cyberspace for weeks, with a buzz over the first former N.B.A. player to disclose his homosexuality.

Gay athletes in the National Football League and Major League Baseball have discussed the terror and isolation they have felt in the locker room and the clubhouse for years, but only after their careers were over.

No current male player in the four major professional sports has dared to come out. Gay players are conditioned to fear being themselves from the beginning, from high school into college. Teammates can be cruel, but so can coaches who perpetuate stereotypes.

Harris had the courage to confront the bullies when she took a legal stance that would turn out to be a watershed moment for all athletes, whether gay, transgender or straight.

Harris didn't have to be a lesbian to be outraged by Portland. Now a player at James Madison University, Harris weathered a year of scrutiny when she sued Portland and Penn State in federal court. The lawsuit was settled in a confidential agreement on Monday, ending a revealing 13 months for the university and its women's basketball coach.

Former Penn State players with their own tales of Portland's bias emerged to support Harris. Anti-gay comments Portland publicly uttered in 1986 and 1991 resurfaced. And Penn State, which began a six-month internal investigation, found Portland created a ''hostile, intimidating and offensive environment'' and fined its coach $10,000.

Somehow, Portland, who never conceded wrongdoing, escaped a feminine pink slip even as she shrugged off the reprimand from her superiors.

The indifference of Portland and the ignorance of Penn State angered many of Harris's supporters. They wanted to see a trial, if only for official closure. But a tidy resolution isn't required because the lawsuit served a significant purpose: Harris put the entire homophobic sports culture on notice.

 

''I think Jen Harris kind of stood up and said, 'Hey, sexual orientation doesn't matter; just let me play ball and treat me fairly,' '' said Helen Carroll, director of the Sports Project at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which helped provide legal representation for Harris. ''I think as a result of what Jen did, young lesbians and gays are going to feel like someone has taken a step for them. And also I think it's important that they feel they have a place to go if they're being discriminated against.''

Harris's lawsuit didn't simply open a dialogue nationwide, it also unveiled the sordid side of prejudice at work on the N.C.A.A. level. From almost every angle of women's college basketball -- including recruiting, playing time and hiring -- homophobia is a tool of discrimination.

Whether from think tanks or independent studies or player and coach anecdotes, the findings are always the same.

On the recruiting trail, sexual orientation is used as a scare tactic by straight coaches who attempt to dissuade a potential star from signing with a rival program guided by a lesbian. And so the pitch goes: Fear the queers.

With every job opening, athletic directors fill positions knowing their hire could be the subject of Internet gossip or booster dissent if the coach is known to be a lesbian. And so an official wonders, should I hire a man to be safe?

Inside the locker room, players are too panicked to come out because playing time and scholarship opportunities could be pulled by a coach who disapproves of their lifestyle. And so the player fights anxiety or depression as she frets over the repercussions of a secret life.

But the real secret is out now. With Harris's lawsuit -- a victory as a settlement -- university administrators have to be wary of the empowered athlete ready to fight against prejudice.

''The lawsuit has been an opportunity to educate,'' Carroll said. ''Administrators and people working in sport can recognize this next time. They can step in and do so in a positive and constructive way and not wait for an athlete who has been mistreated to bring a lawsuit.''

Has Portland learned a lesson? Privately, Portland may still play ''To Spot a Lesbo,'' but at least her gaydar has lost its power to discriminate.

 

You really had me on the first graph of this post, then it all fell apart.

I know most of you probably didn't watch the women's selection show, and who can blame you, really, there's a lot going on.

But ESPN came on the air with the selection show, and the FIRST thing they mentioned was Pokey Chapman. Not the brackets -- Pokey.

So scalper, the columnists might be frauds, but at least they've done their homework.

 

Filth has an odd way of legitimizing sports.

 

I had to stop reading Roberts' column when I came to the following sentence:

I'm not sure anyone who ever saw John Amaechi play would refer to him as brutish, and certainly no one would mistake his playing style for "manly effort." Hell, as I recall, he bragged during his playing career about the fact he didn't play hard because sports weren't important enough to him.

Anyway, obviously John Amaechi's attitude isn't the point of the column, but how can someone get something like that so wrong?

 

This is the passage that got me:

On the recruiting trail, sexual orientation is used as a scare tactic by straight coaches who attempt to dissuade a potential star from signing with a rival program guided by a lesbian. And so the pitch goes: Fear the queers.

With every job opening, athletic directors fill positions knowing their hire could be the subject of Internet gossip or booster dissent if the coach is known to be a lesbian. And so an official wonders, should I hire a man to be safe?

I wonder if opposing coaches were saying that about LSU. It turns out that they would have been right. The AD is now probably wishing he did hire a man.