Sex in sports

by Ryan Hennigan

The other day I was watching an ESPN program that was looking into the factor of sex appeal in sports. The program was interesting and it made me realize that sex and sports are more related than one would originally believe to be. This is true maybe even more so than most other professional jobs.
The program talked in-depth about the clear fact that old fashion knowledgeable man television sport reporters are disappearing. These men who are good at their jobs and know their facts about sports are rapidly and entirely being replaced by attractive young women who read what they say off of a screen behind the camera. And what ESPN found was that not only does what they say happen to be frequently wrong, that when they say something wrong the men do not really care. For example, at a game if there are two men who spot an attractive reporter, most likely they will not listen to what she is saying, rather just look at her.
This is a problem in sports, but the issue does not involve just women. Good-looking professional men who play sports usually make a lot more money than unattractive men with the same talent if they sell themselves. This is true as their faces and bodies are all over the marketing business such as in commercials. This can be seen with men such as Alex Rodriguez, Andre Agassiz, and Tom Brady. The worst case is when players who are not that good make a fortune just because of the fact that they are attractive. This is evident for Anna Kournakova who has made a lot of money just from marketing herself.
A further issue in sports is the reluctantcy of men sport players to admit that they are gay while playing. The first player to do this was David Kopay and there has not been an additional player to admit to being gay while he was playing ever since him. This may be due to the image of sports players as lady’s men, as there have been many to come out after they retired, but all were too proud to admit when they were playing.
Although most of these issues aren’t of great importance to high school sports, they are important to the high school sports players who have dreams of sports for their futures. High school players that go on to become sports reporters or players will come to know and deal with all these issues.