Following a loss to the Georgia Bulldogs football team September 9th, Notre Dame Football Coach Brian Kelly conducted his post game press conference; the story following the media session was less about the 20-19 defeat and more about his handling of a particular news reporter. Coach Kelly was visibly annoyed with the reporter’s question. Kelly cut the reporter off, rushed the reporter, and even corrected the reporter in regards to their interpretation of what happened on the football field. You can argue that Kelly was insinuating that the reporter’s knowledge of the sport as a whole was questionable. Admittedly, not the behavior you want to see from your coach, a man entrusted to lead young college athletes who are on the verge of adulthood. With that being said it’s still not something I thought would garner national attention. I believe what made it a national story is the fact that the reporter was a female. Coaches and media going back and forward is commonplace in sports, but the exchange being between a male and a female rubbed some people the wrong way. That leads me to ask, do minorities truly want equality?

Equality means just that, equal, everyone in the room playing by the same rules. Coach Kelly has a history of being surly, churlish and downright rude. Coach Kelly is a man who once had to be restrained from fighting his own assistant coach. Notre Dame Administrators and boosters have asked Brian to get better hold of his emotions and do a better job of representing the Notre Dame campus. His battles with male reporters haven’t had such headlines so that fact that the reporter is a female should not make the story more salacious.  When Kelly walks into that press conference everyone holding a press credential is fair game.

US Women’s Soccer 2nd Place World Champions

USWNT after World Cup Loss to Japan

There are too many stories of that imbalance taking place across sports and I wonder if the parties involved understand the assault to equality they are perpetrating. In 2011, the Women’s National Soccer Team came up short in the World Cup final, losing 0n penalty kicks to Japan. You would have never known they were runner-ups based on the reception the ladies received when they returned home. They got a champion’s welcoming. The women were popping up on all your daytime and late night programming. Abby Wambach and Hope Solo were kicking soccer balls into moving cabs on Late Night with Dave Letterman. Social media congratulations were pouring in from everyone, including our commander in chief. When have we ever celebrated a male athlete for coming in second? Those platforms are reserved for champions only. When LeBron James loses in the NBA finals we make him go into hiding for the summer, he doesn’t get to parade around Late Night with David Letterman but somehow we let the female athletes get by. In my opinion that is the world saying, “Females we don’t expect much of you so just getting there is enough for us to celebrate. You guys are second rate, we are not holding you to the same championship or bust standard so here goes your participation adulation.” Female athletes, don’t I hear you guys clamoring for the same pay as a male athlete? Then you have to be willing to accept the same criticism when necessary and adhere to the same standards. Equality cannot be a thing of convenience.

NASCAR’s Lucrative Loser

Even if you don’t know the name Danica Patrick, you know the face. She is one of the most recognizable athletes in NASCAR. You know the face because of the exposure she receives through commercials, media appearance, sponsors etc. Many probably believe that exposure is because of her prowess on the race track, I beg to differ. In 180 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts, Patrick has zero wins and zero top-five finishes yet is still one of the highest earners in her sport. How you ask? I think that’s that inequality rearing its ugly head again, sponsors not holding the female athlete to the same standard as their male counterparts. Drivers like Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon must perform on the track to rake in the dough. With Danica, America doesn’t expect much from the female so her just being there is enough. She doesn’t have any career wins? So what, here is a super bowl commercial. In fact, she’s attractive too; here is a little more money. I would never advise anyone to not get paid, I just hope she understands what the genesis of those partnerships are. Hope she understands accepting that money, without the performance on the field of play is contributing to the stunting of her minority group advancing in sport.

Where’s Ronda?

Rousey hiding face after loss to Holly Holm

Probably the biggest athlete to capitalize off the inequality is Ronda Rousey. When she was flying high as the main attraction in UFC she welcomed all attention. Telling the world how great she was, refusing to shake opponents hand, even going as far to say she could beat up Floyd Mayweather. Then UFC 193 happened in November 2015 and she lost. Rousey immediately went into hiding, it started with her skipping out on the post fight press conference. The few times I seen Michael Jordan lose, he put his suit out, came to the podium and answered questions immediately after. I seen McGregor conduct a press conference after being bloody and bruised, face still showing visible scars. McGregor showed up because not only is it the professional thing to do but the UFC mandates. Fast forward a whole calendar year to UFC 207, before the fight Rousey did no promotion, which any fighter would tell you is a major responsibility. The promo tour helps raise interest and ultimately bring in the revenue for the fighters. Well, Rousey manage to get out of that too and when fight night came she lost and again disappeared into the night. You had a better chance of finding Waldo before you could locate Ronda.  When things were good she talked about perseverance and then the first signs of adversity, she was gone. Which male athlete would we allow to get away with this behavior? I’ll wait for the answer. We still crucify Cam Newton for pouting at his post super bowl press conference yet we haven’t called Rousey to the carpet for her disappearing act. The explanation is simple, America doesn’t hold its women to the same standard and the women are ok with it.  

Conor McGregor after loss to Nate Diaz

We Play Same Card When it’s Convenient Too

ESPN personality, Jemele Hill

ESPN personality Jemele Hill just received some heat for tweeting that Donald Trump was a white supremacist, among other things. Her and her supporters seem to think this is ok because the majority sentiment in the country is anti Trump. When the office was occupied by someone Hill and her supporters favored, I am sure they approached any detractors with “He is the president, respect the office”. If that logic was good enough for your president then you have to abide by those same rules now, even if the man occupying the seat is not your favorite.

The black community celebrated like hell when Lupita Nyong’o won an Oscar in 2014. Two years later they were up in arms because no blacks were nominated. If the academy’s process was right in 2014 then the same process has to be right in 2016, no?  Could it be that no black actors performed to the standard that year? To call foul and make it seem like the Academy should have thrown a black name in the pot on some sought of Academy Awards Affirmative Action plan is not where I think we want to be. We want the academy rating the top actors, period! Not pausing to consider a black actor because of fear of facing backlash from black twitter. That’s inequality tipped in our favor. We don’t want to be a charity case, we want to be equals.

Lupita Nyongo, 2014 Oscar Winner

I think the motivation for the imbalance comes from a good place. We understand women, blacks and other minorities have faced great hardships and we’re trying to make up for it. But at some point, we have to say, ok, we are ready to play by the same rules. Different standards is what minorities should be trying to stay clear of,  people before us have fought hard for us to be viewed in the same light as those to our left and our right. Allowing for concessions when it’s in our favor will just leave us in the hole we are trying to avoid; equality cannot be a thing of convenience.