Katie Nolan, the NFL and Sports Media

http://deadspin.com/katie-nolan-nfl-wont-respect-women-until-sports-media-1632700186

Some interesting food for thought from Katie Nolan, whose work I don't catch often.

The main takeaway is that not enough women are at the main table to ask questions of the NFL, and this then feeds the NFL's disrespect of women vis a vis its handling of the Ray Rice situation.

Setting aside the first minute of the commentary -- which to me is a not-so-veiled response to Keith Olbermann's rant -- Nolan eventually gets down to her argument.

Thoughts?

(FWIW, I think the "who's Katie Nolan and what she ever done as a reporter?" tack sorta misses the point. People can make arguments -- like sportswriters who rip playcalling -- without necessarily having done much of the thing that they critique.)

 

I don't think the gender of the person asking the questions has any bearing whatsoever on the NFL's instinct to try to cover this up. They were wrong, but I don't buy the theory that if it was Barbara Walters instead of Bob Costas the brass would've said "Hey lets come clean right away."

 

Oh we aren't going to be bashing Katie Nolan, not on here. That's well-established.

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/98803/

I still love her.

 

I'm really annoyed by this "the NFL does not care about women" narrative.

The NFL cares about one thing: money. That's it. Sure, they handled the Ray Rice thing poorly, but I don't think it has anything to do with a disrespect for women. They just had no idea how to handle it.

The NFL is a billion dollar business that is going to cater to its consumers. And its consumers are overwhelmingly male. So, sure, on the surface, it might look like it only cares about men, but really, it only cares about its consumers.

The makeup industry isn't sexist because its ads, spokespeople, etc. are all focused on women, and the NFL isn't sexist because it focuses on men.

Successful businesses are successful because they know how to give their consumers what they want. If more women start paying attention to the NFL, the NFL will start paying attention to more women.

Just because Katie Nolan and a few other well-spoken female journalists are speaking out doesn't mean the female population as a whole wants more from the NFL.

If you want to show me some statistics, fine. But Nolan's rant, while well versed, really lacked substance, in my opinion.

 

^ The first stat I might show you: http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2013/10/14/Leagues-and-Governing-Bodies/NFL-women.aspx

Women make up a sizable portion of the NFL audience, so your makeup industry correlation is a bit extreme.

Second, if we're going to treat this like business class and pretend things like moral fiber and general humanity aren't important in an industry that garners a lot of public funding (stadiums, tax breaks, etc.), fine. But no good business model only focuses on its best-performing demographic. That'd be like justifying the MLB if they only tried to lure middle-aged men, or if newspapers decided that instead of trying to change to obtain a different audience, they'd ride the baby boomers to the grave.

 

Whoever wrote the headline "Why boycotting the NFL because of Ray Rice is not the answer" is not a very good headline writer.

 

I'm really annoyed with people who are really annoyed by this "the NFL does not care about women" narrative.

You talk about how the NFL is a business. Well, like any good, thriving business, how do you grow when it comes to consumers? You target the under-represented consumers -- the untapped potential. In the NFL's case, this would be women.

Also, that's a pretty naive, frat-boy comment that women don't pay attention to the NFL. Here's a story from last year about the NFL's effort to "woo" female fans: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-05/how-the-nfl-woos-female-fans

Besides making money, what the NFL cares about most is the "shield" and protecting its brand. In doing so, yes, it has disrespected women with the way they've handled domestic violence cases like those involving Ray Rice and Greg Hardy. When a drug offense for weed gets a suspension that is eight times harsher than the suspension for knocking out a woman, you're doing it wrong.

And by the way, it isn't just "Katie Nolan and a few other well-spoken female journalists" who are speaking out when it comes higher standards and expectations from the NFL. Like the White House, for example, or decent human beings. And here is what coach Steve Spurrier said Tuesday about the Ray Rice situation, for those who haven't seen it:

“The only good thing about that video is that people around the country are shocked that this does happen. Of course, I’ve had a rule here ever since I’ve been here. If you ever hit a girl, you’re not going to play on our team. You’re finished. We’ve lost two players. One was about seven years ago. One was about nine years ago. So we’re not going to have a guy on our team that has done that. And I can’t understand that why every coach doesn’t have that rule and why every company doesn’t have that rule for their employees. I think it would put a pretty good end to this stuff. It really is amazing that America has put up with it or compromise. That is something that should never happen. Our players know. They know they are going if they hit a girl. They know it. I would think every coach would have that rule, but I don’t think they do. I think sometimes they say ‘Well, let’s look at the situation.’ Well, you do have to do that, but once you know it’s happened (they have to go). I think it would help put an end to it.”

So yes, not only women care about this stuff, especially when it pertains to human decency.

I really hope you never run a business because with your skewed philosophy, you'd run it into the ground.

-30-

 

Outstanding demonstration of how out of touch you are.

 

The NFL's pink-out in October for breast cancer awareness will ring a bit hollow, won't it?

 

Fortunately they're paired for that with another group that cares about nothing but money.

 

It is high, it is far, it is ... GONE!

 

Here's the thing. Fox put out the video. She acts like she's calling out her employer -- it's on you, Fox! -- as if she posted the video from her basement as some anti-establishment move. There are plenty of women who ask questions of NFL people every day across the country -- they're called reporters.