Clinton Portis Weighs in on Female Reporters in Locker Room

By James Sheldon on September 15th, 2010

Let’s get right to the meat–all PUNS intended.

Washington Redskins RB, Clinton Portis, had this to say after the Ines Sainz “incident.” He made this statement on a local radio program, Tuesday:

You know man, I think you put women reporters in the locker room in positions to see guys walking around naked, and you sit in the locker room with 53 guys, and all of the sudden you see a nice woman in the locker room, I think men are gonna tend to turn and look and want to say something to that woman. For the woman, I think they make it so much that you can’t interact and you can’t be involved with athletes, you can’t talk to these guys, you can’t interact with these guys.

And I mean, you put a woman and you give her a choice of 53 athletes, somebody got to be appealing to her. You know, somebody got to spark her interest, or she’s gonna want somebody. I don’t know what kind of woman won’t, if you get to go and look at 53 men’s packages. And you’re just sitting here, saying ‘Oh, none of this is attractive to me.’ I know you’re doing a job, but at the same time, the same way I’m gonna cut my eye if I see somebody worth talking to, I’m sure they do the same thing.

That’s an opinion, right? Sure, it crosses all boundaries of being politically correct, and it lacks a general sense of coherence, but all people, whether right or wrong, are entitled to their opinion, aren’t they?

C’mon now… Don’t be silly…

An opinion? If you play in the NFL? Are you kidding? Opinion? With Roger Goodell as commissioner? Please. Not an opinion that might offend anyone.

The NFL, the Washington Redskins and Clinton Portis have apologized for his insensitive comments, and that’s a good thing–if there’s one thing that comes to mind when I think football, it’s sensitivity.

While Portis’s comments are completely sophomoric, I get what I think he’s trying to saying. What business does a female reporter have in a men’s locker room? As a former jock, I just hate reporters in the locker room, period–male or female. You don’t see male reporters hanging out in women’s locker rooms, do you? Well, why not? That’s equality, right? That’s sexist, isn’t it?

Let’s not be absurd, it’s not sexist, it’s smart. It’s intelligent. Equality doesn’t mean we have to be all up in each other’s Kool-Aid at all times to prevent one sex from getting a leg up on the other in the professional world.

It’s 2010, I’m confident that we could come up with a better interview system than crashing an athlete’s “dressing room” after practice and games–get ‘em all out of the locker rooms, and let these people complete their work day. Yet for the sake of entertainment, I do enjoy that this has made the NFL and Roger Goodell squirm.