Desperate Sports Times
by Ivette Ricco
November 22, 2004
This week in sports:
*Monday Night Football - are you ready for some sex?
*I went to a fight and an NBA basketball game broke
out.
We have heard the outcry many times before, sports and violence, integral pieces of the American fabric.
Now we can add a few other deadly sins to the SOP (standard operating procedure) of the sports machine. Sex, racism and sexism all reared their ugly heads this week.
MNF – the terrible towel incident.
Is this a new issue? Are we heading straight to hell and is the apocalypse approaching?
Of course not. Second-guessing ourselves is a national pastime and looking like puritan fools in the eyes of the rest of the Western world is the norm.
I can hear Osama now, “the American devils are complaining about how we treat our women, just look at how they treat their women”.
-Sex- the new frontier in sports marketing.
Who do you think ABC was targeting when they introduced the Monday night game with a towel clad Nicolette Sheridan?
The female fan? Grannies with their grandkids?
Of course not. They were targeting the group advertisers drool over, the advertising world’s dream market; the young male fan aged 18-30.
Imagine the folks at ABC brainstorming on how to open the Monday Night Show. One team has Bill Parcells and Vinny Testaverde, the other team Has Terrell Owens. Ahh…now that’s the ticket.
T.O. was used as chump bait, an easy way to raise the controversy meter from the get-go. Why didn’t they use Vinny Testaverde or even Donovan McNabb? McNabb would have had to bring his mom and some soup for the skit to work. No controversy there.
Not the same thing is it?
Yes it’s the same old story; anything goes because everything sells. And sex sells especially well.
"Football," Donovan McNabb told reporters last week, "is a sexy sport."
And why should T.O. have to apologize? He works for the NFL and ABC pays the NFL for the rights to NFL games. How does Terrell Owens say no to that? Or why would he even think of saying no to his employer?
T.O.'s entire career has been a highlight reel of
the NFL’s funniest end zone celebrations, and
now this.
But, why should anyone apologize? It's all an act;
Owens and Sheridan are entertainers.
The locker room has been a point of contention for the sexes for years. It wasn’t that long ago that women reporters were banned from that inner sanctum.
"I always thought that the whole point of male athletes' resistance to women reporters in the locker room was that they didn't want to be stared at while they're naked," said Mary Jo Kane, the director of the Minneapolis-based Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport. "But I guess the message here is that when they're there as sex objects, no problem."
"To me, that's the first thing I thought of as an African-American," Dungy said. "I think it's stereotypical in looking at the players, and on the heels of the Kobe Bryant incident I think it's very insensitive."
Tony Dungy may have a valid point but, but where was the outcry against the stereotyping of sexy, blonde, white women, or women in general?
Marketers realize that the modern athlete is young, urban and black. And that the consumer they want to target identifies with the modern athlete.
The reality is that there is a huge chasm in America between the modern black athlete and the “old school” fan, be they black or white.
The 20 something athlete is more Nelly than Tony ( Bennett that is), more Usher than Rolling Stones.
If the NFL wants to play to a demographic market considered the most valuable viewer in terms of revenue, then it is reasonable to assume that we will continue to be subjected to crotch grabbing, and barely covered entertainers.
It’s interesting to note that Tony Dungy dealt the race card but there was no sexism card thrown out. If there was it was most likely tossed in the file labeled “women whining”.
Was there a distinction made between the towel-clad Nicolette and the scantily clad cheerleaders prowling the sidelines?
Is there an outcry from viewers when Jillian Barbiere does the weather report on Sunday mornings (when kids are up and running about) in outfits better suited for a Maxim cover than a weather report?
Is she wearing leather to church right after the broadcast?
The Federal Communications Commission has barely recovered from the Tit-illating Super Bowl “costume malfunction” and now it is faced with yet another naked truth, that they have little or no controls in place in their selective crusade against bare skin.
The N.F.L. was forced once again to try and explain how they could be so clueless about the marketing of their product. Is this the same NFL that shut down Las Vegas Super Bowl parties and the same NFL that fines players who don’t tuck in their jerseys?
"They're pandering to what hormonal, hypersexual teenaged boys want," said Donna Lopiano, executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation. "But what I really want to know is who actually decides to put this on. Is it a father, a father of a daughter?"
Yes concerned dad all over America are sitting with their young daughters and explaining that football and naked women don’t go hand in hand.
And no, Janet Jackson wasn’t invited to the MNF show. And yes Justin Timberlake did pull off the top but it was an accident.
And yes honey you can keep your clothes on and still grow up to be a world leader.
And incidentally no children were maimed or hurt in the MNF production. No children were seen weeping as grown men flailed at each other during a sporting event.
After the NBA brawl this week the MNF skit seems tame in comparison.
The Violence:
The NBA and Le Commish, Dave Stern came down hard on Ron Artest and the rest of the NBA’s Middleweight division also known as the Pacers and the Pistons.
Maybe Artest has an excuse for his foul behavior, maybe he thought he was at the Vibe Awards and simply got his venues confused.
The brawl in Motown was ugly and frightening. The sight of a child crying and being consoled by his dad in the stands after witnessing this disgraceful scene was supremely sad.
A little cleavage and bare skin have never hurt anyone. The violence during the end of the Pacers/Pistons game was one of the ugliest sports moment of the week, and perhaps of the decade.
And we surely had other ugly scenes to pick from in this week of pre-Holiday celebration.
The spitting/fighting contest between the Steelers and the Browns was pretty damn ugly too, but those big guys don’t seem to have the form necessary to clock anyone the way the heavy hitters in the NBA do.
And, after the game the Steelers and the Browns shook hands later. All is well that ends well, right?
| Artest's Suspensions Since '02-03 |
| Reason |
Games |
| Fought fans in Detroit |
73 |
Confronting bench/ Obscene gesture
|
4 |
| Flagrant fouls |
4 |
| Threw TV monitor |
3 |
| Damaged locker room (team suspension) |
1 |
| Elbowing a player |
1 |
| Leaving bench during scuffle |
1 |
Violence has been a part of sports for as long as one can remember.
A chronicle of violent events in American Sports:
Nov. 19, 2004 - One of the worst brawls in U.S. sports history took place near the end of the Indiana Pacers-Detroit Pistons game. Fans and players threw punches; spectators tossed a chair, beer, ice and popcorn. Four players - Ron Artest, Jermaine O'Neal, Stephen Jackson and Ben Wallace - were suspended indefinitely by the NBA for an outburst commissioner David Stern called "shocking, repulsive and inexcusable."
Sept. 13, 2004 - Texas Rangers pitcher Frank Francisco threw a chair that hit a woman in the stands and broke her nose.
April 19, 2003 - An Oakland Athletics fan threw a cell phone at Texas Rangers outfielder Carl Everett.
April 15, 2003 - A man came out of the stands and grabbed umpire Laz Diaz around the legs during a game between the Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals.
Sept. 19, 2002 - A father and son burst onto the field at Chicago's Comiskey Park and slammed Kansas City Royals first-base coach Tom Gamboa to the ground and punched and kicked him.
Dec. 16, 2001 - Bottles thrown by Cleveland Browns fans hit players on both teams and other people in the stands. Most of the hundreds of bottles were plastic but many were filled with beer.
Nov. 24, 1999 - Oakland Raiders were pelted with snowballs, some spiked with batteries, at Denver's Mile High Stadium. Charles Woodson allegedly threw a snowball that struck a female fan in the face, and Lincoln Kennedy went after a fan who had hit him in the face with a snowball.
Oct. 3, 1999 - A metal object thrown from the stands at Mile High Stadium in Denver hit Broncos cornerback Dale Carter in the cheek, causing blurred vision and a bruise.
Sept. 24, 1999 - A fan attacked Houston right fielder Bill Spiers in Milwaukee. Spiers ended up with a welt under his left eye, a bloody nose and whiplash.
Dec. 23, 1995 - Fans at Giants Stadium hurled dozens of snowballs at the Chargers' sideline, interrupting a game between San Diego and New York. One snowball knocked San Diego equipment manager Sid Brooks unconscious.
Sept. 28, 1995 - Cubs reliever Randy Myers was charged by a bond trader who ran out of the stands at Wrigley Field. Myers saw the man coming, dropped his glove and knocked him down with his forearm.
Feb. 6, 1995 - Vernon Maxwell entered the stands and punched a fan who had been heckling him during a game at Portland. He was suspended 10 games without pay and fined $20,000. He later settled out of court with the fan.
Aug. 27, 1986 - California Angels first baseman Wally Joyner was hit in an arm by a knife thrown from the upper deck at Yankee Stadium but was unhurt.
July 12, 1979 - A radio DJ blew up disco records in the outfield at Comiskey Park, and a riot nearly ensued at "Disco Demolition Night" against the Detroit Tigers. Some of the 50,000 fans got into the park for 98 cents if they brought a record. They tossed them on the field, threw beers, cherry bombs and started fires. Game 2 of the doubleheader was called off.
April 25, 1976 - Chicago center fielder Rick Monday rescued the American flag from two fans who tried to set it on fire in the outfield at Dodger Stadium during the fourth inning of the Cubs' 5-4, 10-inning loss to Los Angeles.
April 2, 1969 - Toronto's Pat Quinn knocked out Boston Bruins great Bobby Orr with a vicious check during an NHL playoff game. A brawl broke out on the ice and in the stands, with Quinn leaving the Boston Garden under a heavy police escort.
Sept. 10, 1961 - Cleveland center fielder Jimmy Piersall was attacked by two fans who ran out of the right-field stands onto the field at Yankee Stadium during the seventh inning of the second game of a doubleheader. Piersall punched and kicked them before teammates and police came to his aid.
Sept. 16, 1940 - After an argument at Ebbets Field, which resulted in a suspension for Dodgers manager Leo Durocher, a fan punched umpire George Magerkurth.
Oct. 9, 1934 - After the Cardinals' Joe Medwick slid hard into Mickey Owen at third base for a triple during World Series Game 7 at Detroit, fans threw tomatoes at Medwick when he took his position in left field for the bottom of the inning.
July 11, 1886 - Umpire George Bradley was hit by
a beer mug during mayhem in the sixth inning of the
second game of a doubleheader at Cincinnati.
When it comes to violence, pro sports needs to get
real about itself.
The quick fix is to make not only the players accountable, but the teams as well.
If your player is fined or suspended then the team takes an equal or greater financial hit.
If teams are truly a “family” then let the franchise put the family’s loyalty on the line. You can bet that it wouldn’t take long before players realized that they had no latitude if they crossed the line. For better or for worse, equal punishment should be served all the way around.
Sex and violence, modern problems in modern sports.
The male-dominated media industry continues to focus on the “money-makers, sex, booze and “show me the money” underside of sports.
The Monday night football tease was just another attempt by advertisers to package sports to the demographic they feel constitute the most coveted consumer.
Perhaps they should reconsider their marketing strategies. We are all not white males aged 18-30. We are not all guys with ED. We are not all blonde bimbos wrestling in the mud and drinking lite beer. We are not all into hip-hop, rap, and “in your face” attitude.
Wake up gentlemen before it’s too late, and realize that your audience is aching for some diversification that doesn’t focus on just one demographic group. Wake up to the fact that violence will not go away unless all the participants feel the pinch in their pockets.
Otherwise the events of this past week will come back to haunt you like a bad scene from “Ground Hog Day”.
[Top] [Print this Page]
