Blog: Sometimes, the Other Team Wins

Leave it to Bryant Gumbel to clearly articulate what is wrong with women's sports, men's sports and the sports media that covers mostly the latter.

In case you missed it, Gumbel closed his Real Sports show on HBO Sports last week with some challenging words for his profession in the wake of the Americans' defeat in the Women's World Cup final against Japan. "Can we stop coddling women in sports? Are we now so fearful of being labeled sexist that we can't objectively assess the efforts of female athletes?" Gumbel asked. "Had a men's team turned in a similar performance, papers and pundits nationwide would have had a field day assailing the players, criticizing the coach and demanding widespread changes to a men's national team that flat-out choked. Yet the common reactions to this ladies' loss were simply expressions of empathy for the defeat of the unfortunate darlings and pride in their oh-so-heroic effort."

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