The major headline in sports over the past week was the allegations of misconduct within the Washington football organization reported by The Washington Post that 15 former female employees and 2 sports writers dealt with sexual harassment and verbal abuse from now former team employees.
Many in the world of sports have voiced their opinions on the allegations. On ESPN Radio’s Sunday Morning, Jen Lada spoke about this story and talked about the problem that exists that makes it tough for more women to come forward.
“It’s so complicated to say why didn’t you just tattle,” she said. “We know in our society what the reaction is to narcs, right? And snitches and all of those other things and you don’t ever want to be labeled as problematic. So, you swallow it and hope you can sidestep it and continue on your upward trajectory in this career and that’s the problem. The onus is on the women to move past it and not on the men to improve it.”
Lada explained before this quote that the characteristics that help a woman have success in the sports industry can sometimes work against a person when they are the victim of this type of behavior.
“Think about the women who are successful in this industry. Think about the characteristics that they have. There’s a tenacity, there’s a fearlessness. There is all of those strong characteristics that help you get to where you want to be in this career and those things almost work counterintuitively to playing the victim, even when you are a victim.”
Lada’s co-host, Myron Medcalf, made the point that the Washington football team should receive harsh penalties, including not taking part in one of the biggest events on the NFL calendar next year.
“The Washington football team should be banned from the 2021 NFL Draft. They should not be allowed to make any picks, they should not be allowed to make any trades, and they should not be allowed to participate in anything attached to the NFL Draft. That’s how you send a message…Remove the Washington football team from the 2021 NFL Draft and you will see other teams change as well.”
On Monday morning, ESPN’s college football reporter, Heather Dinich, was on Get Up with Ryan Smith to talk about the latest around the Washington story, including the apology letter sent out by owner Daniel Snyder, which she wants to put “in the shredder.” She says his next letter should be a “letter of resignation.”
“One of the most frustrating things I saw come out of this was young female reporters who are questioning whether or not to get into the business because of this,” Dinich said. “No, absolutely you get into this business and you write that next story so ownership like Dan Snyder does not continue to happen.”
The perspectives shared by many on this story have been powerful and hopefully change can come from this story so that everybody can feel they are included in sports and don’t have to deal with behavior like this going forward.
