Play Like a Jet

I'll admit, my first temptation upon hearing this story was to create a new "Tail Report" for Ines Sainz, and thus feed into the typical blogger response to any breaking news that features a really hot woman. [I mean, come on—a former Miss Spain? I'm shaking like Pookie on Ice T's kitchen counter with the urge to paste her pictures all over Crooked Straight—and my home office, for that matter.]

But I’ll try to take a slightly higher road here, and stick to the facts as they've been reported. From CBS News:

While Sainz, a former Miss Spain and reporter for Mexico's TV Azteca, was working on a story about quarterback Mark Sanchez, she had footballs thrown in her direction by a Jets coach during practice. Players later called out to her in the team's locker room.

So a Mexican TV station sent a former beauty queen into an NFL locker room, and she was treated as a sexual object instead of a serious reporter… Forgive me, but I’m struggling to see the basis of Ms. Sainz’s and/or TV Azteca’s surprise here. To be clear, I’m not saying that a beautiful woman cannot be a real journalist. Katie Couric, Lara Logan, and many others have proven that being sexually desirable does not preclude you from being credible during an interview. Nor am I saying that vulgar behavior by the Jets’ personnel is excusable. They are professional adults, and should act as such when in the presence of a fellow professional adult in the off-field work environment (even when the circumstances are as uncommon and affecting as that fellow professional being an international beauty).

That being said, this story hardly seems worthy of investigation. She “had footballs thrown in her direction”? Jet players “called out to her”? What is she, a six year old? Is this all she has? Short of having Sanchez fire a tight spiral at her ass or Santonio swinging his Holmes in his hand while calling her over to his locker, I’m failing to understand how Ms. Sainz was treated to conditions so demeaning and tormenting that she felt the need to tweet "I die of embarrassment!".

And, while bad behavior by Jets players would be justifiably punishable, would it be surprising? As a female television reporter walking into the locker room of a professional football team, aren’t you mentally prepared for some manners and personal conduct that might push the boundaries of politeness? You are stepping into a den of young men, in some cases only a year or two removed from college, most of whom have been pampered and privileged for over ten years because of their athletic prowess. Their egos have grown fat on the sacrificial lambs of hundreds of groupies and college coeds during that time. And in the hallowed confines of a team locker room, where clouds of testosterone roll thicker than the clouds of smoke that pour out of Snoop Dogg’s tour bus, a man of any age is just a big teenager, joking around with his buddies.

Anyone stepping into that room—even you, Miss Sainz—is seen as a fellow 10th grader. A beautiful Spanish woman with flowing blonde hair and a strategically buttoned blouse is going to be treated just as any pretty 16 year old girl is treated by the boys in her class. You’re going to be joked with; you’re going to be teased. There are going to be a few catcalls; there are going to be a few suggestive come-ons. But you have to understand the environment and adjust your parameters of right and wrong; of what is acceptable and what isn’t. As a professional journalist inserting herself into this type of environment, you should know what your value will be in their snap judgments, and that none of it will come from your media credentials.

Ines should just consider herself lucky that it was Sanchez she was interviewing, and not Brett Favre.