Gender remarks turn into sideshow
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Sports Columnist
After being hit by debris thrown from the stands at one game she covered for ESPN, football sideline reporter Heather Cox turned the experience into a revealing look at a growing problem.
In part because of the report, during which Cox held up examples of the projectiles that had been hurled at visiting players and bystanders, Fresno State and some other schools have upgraded security for games such as Friday's televised meeting with the University of Hawai'i.
Curiously, about the same time the enterprising piece appeared this month, CBS commentator Andy Rooney was blasting television networks for allowing women reporters on the sidelines.
"The only thing that really bugs me about television's coverage is those damn women they have down on the sidelines who don't know what the hell they're talking about," Rooney said on "The Boomer Esiason Show."
" I mean, I'm not a sexist person, but a woman has no business being down there trying to make some comment about a football game," Rooney said.
Suddenly, female sideline reporters, a mainstay of many college and pro football telecasts, have unfortunately become more a part of the news instead of just reporters of it.
Rooney's off-the-wall, Al Campanis-like mutterings have reinforced some stereotypes and put female reporters under more of a microscope at a time when you'd think we'd have long since moved past it.
For example, Cox, who is scheduled to work the UH-FSU game on ESPN2 with Steve Levy and Rod Gilmore, says the controversy has sometimes given her pause to reflect on how stories may be looked at and how her credibility might be judged in light of it. Issues and scrutiny that some of the men who hold similar positions rarely encounter.
"My crew and I talked about it last week and they were very supportive of the job I'm doing," Cox said.
Indeed, some of the best sideline and courtside work over the years have been turned in by Leslie Visser, Michelle Tafoya and Melissa Stark.
Cox, who was a volleyball player at the University of Pacific during the height of the UH-UOP rivalry, has spent eight years in sportscasting doing volleyball, basketball and soccer in addition to football. She said she began acquiring an interest in college football when she was barely hip-pad high as the daughter of USC season-ticket holders.
"I truly believe there are good female and male sideline reporters and there are poor female and male reporters," Cox said. "I don't think sex has anything to do with it."
In this day and age, limiting the position by gender should be as much an anachronism as the drop-kick.
