For as long as I’ve paid attention to sports, the women in my life have complained about it.
“Why are you so obsessed with a bunch of guys you’ve never met? Why are you getting so upset it’s just a game? Why don’t you ever wash that Eli Manning jersey? That’s gross.”
Please, women, just let me be.
But in recent years, as angel backers have poured money into women’s sports in an effort to elevate them to the same status as men’s sports, women have become a growing contingent in the sporting fandom constituency.
While paling in comparison to men’s sports, the women’s market has carved out a nice little niche for itself, particularly in the college arena. But professional leagues like the WNBA have struggled to earn a foothold in the wider sports world, much to the chagrin of many female fans.
Scores of women complain about men’s lack of interest in the female side of sports and castigate their male counterparts for not offering full-throated support of their favored leagues.
So, when the rise of superstar Caitlin Clark and other exciting college hoopers like Angel Reese and Paige Buckers propelled women’s college basketball into the national conversation this year, women must have finally found some satisfaction in their sport’s newfound popularity right? (RELATED: LSU Coach Addresses Backlash After Team Walked Off Court During National Anthem)
Well, not all women.
Jessica Smetana, a former Sports Illustrated writer who now broadcasts on the Dan Le Batard Show, lamented the nature of the conversation surrounding women’s sports as “disheartening,” during a Thursday appearance on Dan’s show.
“In general, I’m seeing some of the conversations happening on ESPN or Fox or whatever. It’s disheartening because you now see the way men’s sports is treated a lot of the time, which is like really ignorant, just stupid hot takes,” Smetana complained. “But now it’s happening to women’s players and I think there’s an element of racism, and definitely sexism, that a lot of these shows do not know how to talk about… great, we’re finally talking about women’s sports, but are we doing it very well?”
“It’s disheartening because you now see the way men’s sports is treated a lot of the time, which is ignorant, stupid hot takes, but now it’s happening to women’s players…we’re finally talking about women’s sports, but are we doing it very well?” – @jessica_smetana
— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) April 4, 2024
Ah yes the wokesters daily double. Racism and sexism. The holy duo.
Besides the classic liberal trope of calling everything you don’t like racist, I take major issue with Smetana’s whining here. All women in sports have wanted for years is equality. Equal pay. Equal treatment. Well this is what it looks like! Men, especially in the context of sports, are awful to each other.
Yes, we spew garbage hot takes confidently despite the fact that we probably only watched a 45 second highlight reel of a 48 minute game. Yeah, we call players losers when they lose. We call refs dirtbags and coaches dumb dinguses. That’s the game. That’s the beauty of sports. It’s an outlet for all of our frustrations and a receptacle for our unrealized hopes and dreams too. If you want to be a part of the league, you gotta play by the rules. If you want equal treatment, don’t whine about it once you get it!
Smetana’s complaining seems to confirm Bill Burr’s age-old theory that women really just want to ruin sports because they’re jealous that men can enjoy something so simple and dumb.
“You know what makes women happy? Nothing,” Burr quipped in a prophetic 2014 interview with Conan O’Brien. “That is why they’re slowly taking over the NFL. Because it annoys them that we can just sit there with a pizza and a drink like ‘that’s not holding!’ and just be like, enjoy ourselves… they’re jealous of it. They’re jealous of how simple the male brain is, that you can just sit there and be entertained and find true happiness. It just bugs them, so they gotta ruin it,” Burr joked.
While he may have said it in jest, his sentiments ring true.
“We want equality.”
Ok, here it is.
“No, we want better equality!’
Well… I can’t help you there mam.