TFG Podcast: Inside the NFL’s Tone Deaf Women’s Summit
From the The Football Girl Podcast, hosted by Melissa Jacobs. Please subscribe in iTunes to get new episodes of thepod in your feed the second we publish. If you like what you hear, please rate and/or review us!
Toward the tail end of Super Bowl week in Minneapolis the NFL held its third-annual NFL women’s Summit, an event billed as empowering 18-24 years. While there was some generic career advice, almost none of the myriad women who are currently breaking glass in the NFL attended. The women that did sit on panels did so on pink pillows and were treated to host Maria Menounos’s cookbook on the way out.
Melissa Jacobs breaks down this incredibly demeaning event (16:15) and the real issues facing women in football (31:30) with Bleacher Report’s Natalie Weiner who was also in attendance.
Also in this episode, Melissa has some not so kind words about Josh McDaniels (1:01) and some incredibly nice words about the Philadelphia Eagles who may be the most perfect team in American sports right now. (34:54)
Quotables:
Natalie on the NFL’s Women’s Summit not meeting expectations:
“It was somehow worse than I anticipated. It just felt so regressive, starting with the pink, which as we know the NFL remains convinced that women love pink. Yeah, ok. It feels like that’s diminished a little bit where teams do nice stuff doe women that’s not always entirely pink Maria Menounos as host, I guess, but that fact that she was like, ‘We’re not here to talk about the game.’ I couldn’t believe those words came out of her mouth. We’re at an NFL event ad it’s Super Bowl week and you’re saying we’re not going to talk about football. Huh?”
Natalie on an obvious way to market to women:
“If the NFL is really about making football a more sustainable sport, and increasing involvement from women is a great way to do that, then they should be spotlighting the women who are in football, the women who play football, the women who coach football, because they exist.”
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Music credits:
Funky Cha Cha – Arturo Sandoval | HUMBLE – Kendrick Lamar | DNA – Kendrick Lamar | Amen – Meek Mill | Mr. Brightside – The Killers
