Men need to be extra careful in how they regard women, even when the woman being described got where she was by being, well, attractive.<\/p>\n
Let me explain:<\/p>\n
The recent Bowl Championship game between the universities of Alabama and Notre Dame flopped. As it had been decades since the Fighting Irish had risen to No. 1, I thought \u00e2\u20ac\u201d finally \u00e2\u20ac\u201d this is their year. The trouble is, Notre Dame never showed up.<\/p>\n
Even the presence of stellar linebacker, Manti Te\u00e2\u20ac\u2122o, a 6-2, 255-pound senior for the Irish, was virtually unnoticed. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not forget that he was a Heisman Trophy finalist.<\/p>\n
The then-No. 1 college team in the nation rolled over and played dead just a few minutes into the game. A sportscaster later might have asked the Fighting Irish coach, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When did you first realize your team was in trouble?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d His reply could have been: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Immediately after the National Anthem.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The one-sided game gave long-time sportscaster Brent Musburger both time and opportunity to praise the pulchritude of a woman named Katherine Webb, who happens to be the girlfriend of Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron. As network camera operators are wont to do, they let their wandering lenses scan the crowds. And of course, they know ahead of time which celebrity is going to be sitting where.<\/p>\n
Webb was last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Miss Alabama. So, when the cameras began scanning the fans in the stands, the long-time sports commentator, Musburger, extolled Miss Webb\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s assets.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You see that lovely lady there, she does go to Auburn, but she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also Miss Alabama and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s A.J. McCarron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s girlfriend,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. Then he added, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You quarterbacks, you get all the good-looking women. What a beautiful woman. Wow.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Is there anyone on the planet who would disagree? Is there anyone who would fail to believe that the luck of the Irish that day fell instead on the Crimson Tide, specifically their quarterback? And those extended views of the beauty queen became viral, appearing in newspapers and magazines the next day.<\/p>\n
Well, the sports network, ESPN, said Musburger went too far, and has since apologized. But to be sure, simultaneously, the media have run countless images of Webb, some full-figure views of her in a bathing suit. And unless we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re extremely naive, Katherine won the Miss Alabama title by, among other things, strutting her stuff. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lovely,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153good-looking\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153beautiful\u00e2\u20ac\u009d don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even come close to giving Musburger\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s comments a lascivious tone, but the network apologized nevertheless.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s apparently politically incorrect for men to praise her, on national television. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been fallout on both sides of the issue. A day after ESPN apologized for the 73-year-old Musburger\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153going too far,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d both Katherine and boyfriend McCarron said the Alabama title holder didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think the gesture was even necessary.\u00c2\u00a0Katherine Webb said, on the Today show, with Matt Lauer, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think the media has been really unfair to (Musburger). I think if he had said something along the line of we were hot or sexy, I think that would be a little bit different.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Even Webb\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s father, Alan Webb, doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see Musburger as having gone too far. The father said, in part, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153On one hand, you can look at it as being kind of like the dirty old man, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m used to this and I think if you really look into what that he was trying to say, he was trying to be complimentary, and I think they need to give Brent a break.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
But yet, many take umbrage that Musburger said anything at all.<\/p>\n
On countless blogs and Twitters, people have lined up on both sides of the issue, some claiming it was unfair to isolate Miss Alabama on national TV while Musburger spoke of her attributes, without her knowledge.<\/p>\n
Another person said that given the size and number of monitors throughout Miami\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Sun Life Stadium, it would be impossible for anyone being spotlighted not to know instantly that it was being done. Those monitors generally show whatever the TV audience is seeing.<\/p>\n
Conceding that Musburger \u00e2\u20ac\u0153went too far,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a statement from ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys reads in part: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We always try to capture interesting storylines and the relationship between an Auburn grad who is Miss Alabama and the current Alabama quarterback certainly met that test. … However, we apologize that the commentary in this instance went too far and Brent understands that.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
And if you seek more understanding of this issue, get online, do the research. There are passionate opinions for all sides.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
In the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc50s, life was simple: If you wish to attend a college bowl game, the choices are among the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl and Sugar Bowl.<\/p>\n
Today, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bowl game for every occasion, preference or geographic area. And many have sponsors: Tostitos, Meineke, FedEx, Sunkist, Alamo, Capital One, Chick-fil-a, Little Caesar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Pizza and GoDaddy.com.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great that these sponsors \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and there are many others \u00e2\u20ac\u201d agree to help underwrite grid expenses, but do any of those big bucks filter down to the fans?<\/p>\n
Apparently not. One online source listed individual ticket prices as around $850 for the worst seat in the nosebleed section of the Alabama-Notre Dame playoff. Any seat in the lower level went for about $1,700.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make it seem as if fans are being accorded any great honor. Yet, when newspapers and other media refer to particular bowl games, the sponsors receive lots of free publicity. Not a bad deal for a sponsor. Can anyone answer how much a ticket to a major bowl game would cost if there were no sponsors?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Men need to be extra careful in how they regard women, even when the woman being described got where she was by being, well, attractive. Let me explain: The recent Bowl Championship game between the universities of Alabama and Notre Dame flopped. As it had been decades since the Fighting Irish had risen to No. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1025,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024\/revisions\/1025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}