“Kicking” Away Gender Norms in Sports

This week, I wanted to again depart from my regular movie review column to discuss a recent event that I found troubling. As I’ve mentioned in a few of my previous posts, I am a huge fan of the NFL. I love watching football, as well as reading about, talking about, and posting about it. A recent NFL change re-opened the age old debate about women in sports. Unfortunately, the impetus for discussion was essentially a media sideshow which validated much of the sexist and misogynist criticism before the event. What I’m talking about is the much publicized March 3^rd NFL tryout for female “kicker” Lauren Silberman.

The National Football League has recently come up with an interesting idea—regional combines. These events rotate geographically and allow anyone with $275 dollars and the ability to fill out a form to try out for NFL teams. I suppose it’s a bit like Vince Papale of Eagles (and movie, Invincible, fame). In an effort to promote these tryouts to the general public and potential players, a heavily featured storyline was that there would be a female kicker trying out—the first in NFL history.

Lauren Silberman, a 28 year old former club soccer player was going to kick. And why not? Even if people don’t believe that women can be offensive lineman, quarterbacks, or runningbacks, surely there are women capable of booting a ball 50 yards. Maybe this tryout would change age old gendered assumptions.

Of course, internet debates raged. A common question on football forums was whether any women could play at the NFL level for any position. Naturally, these disagreements spawned countless sexist comments. Nevertheless, the debates were short-lived.

That’s because Silberman kicked. Well, she kicked twice after spending about 20 seconds trying to figure out how to place the ball on the tee. Her kicks traveled 13 and 19 yards (completely terrible for those with no frame of reference). In addition, Silberman hurt her quad and had to see a trainer. Conclusive proof that women have no place playing alongside men, right?

Wrong. All these events proved was that the whole thing was just a sideshow. Surely, a kicker with NFL dreams would have spent some time practicing and at least know how to place the ball. Silberman wanted 15 minutes of fame, and I suppose that’s ok. People do way worse to get a bit of media attention. However, this tryout was really harmful in that it proved all of those sexist comments right–at least for the moment. To the people who can’t see through Silberman’s fame grab, this was really what we can expect from women athletes.

A good counter example is Holley Mangold. Holley is the sister of New York Jets center, Nick Mangold. Her own accomplishments include a recent US Olympic weightlifting appearance, as well as being the first woman non-kicker to play in an Ohio Division III football game (Holley was an offensive lineman). At 5-8 and 350 pounds, Holley can lift 562 pounds. Tell me that she couldn’t make a roster with football focused training and of course, the opportunity. Surely, there are other women who possess some of the potential physical talent to push for a practice squad or roster spot if they were given the same background in football.

I want to make it clear that I don’t want to gloss over difference between men and women. Equality doesn’t necessarily mean that there aren’t biological, genetic, and other important variances between the sexes. However, I do think that it is laughable that there are people out there who believe that no women could play at a high enough level to be on an NFL roster. At any given time, there are 1696 players in the NFL. I tend to believe that there are women capable of taking some of these spots. However, there will never be a chance for this unless attitudes change. Of course, publicity stunts like the one perpetuated by Lauren Silberman only help maintain the status quo.

What does the community think? Will sports ever drop the line between men and women and have fully open competition? Or are we too engrained in traditional mindsets? Is this integration even a desirable outcome? As always, reader comments are very welcome!