Thoughts from the sports desk

Weekly thoughts from the editorial desk in the world of sports.

Sports Staff

The wide world of sports has been divided for months now with the 2016 election approaching. With dozens of major sports figures endorsing candidates on both sides of the aisle, the election has seen the sports world become somewhat polarized as issues such as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s recent comments about the NFL’s concussion protocol have been widely publicized.

Talk of the election was given a far more serious tone after the 2005 Access Hollywood video of Trump speaking of sexually assaulting women was released. Trump’s response to the video was that it was “locker room talk” and that his remarks don’t reflect his opinions about women.

After a weekend full of over a dozen women accusing Trump of sexual assault, this looks far more like a pattern of behavior than simply “locker room talk.” Trump’s idea of locker room talk doesn’t match up well with many statements from sports players.

“They’re bad comments. They’re demeaning to women,” said Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers. “You know, I think when people throw out that word, ‘locker room talk,’ there’s nobody talking like that in the locker room. Is there swearing in the locker room? Yeah. Every other word. There’s not that type of talk in anyone’s locker room.”

Detroit Lions wide receiver Golden Tate had a similar outlook on the issue.

“There’s no excuse to talk that way about women, to women, to other people,” Tate said. “I’ve heard some distasteful things over the years, but I’ve also heard some incredible things and some incredible outputs on life and character and religion and faith.”

Minnesota’s own head coach of the Lynx, Cheryl Reeve, expounded further on the topic of so-called “locker-room talk.”

“[Trump] was trying to say, ‘It’s what men do.’ And that to me is the inherent problem,” Reeve said. “It is what men do. Let’s not have all these men stand up and say, ‘Well, we don’t do that!’ It is behavior that has been accepted for years.”

Supporters of Trump have claimed that he wasn’t deliberately saying anything demeaning to women. Rush Limbaugh claimed Trump was merely talking straight.

“This is what it looks like when you take on the establishment,” said Limbaugh. “This is exactly what it looks like.”

Limbaugh isn’t the only radio host to have made statements in direct support of Trump. That said, direct support of a certain viewpoint isn’t the only way to substantiate that viewpoint.

The Power Trip Morning Show of Minnesota fame is run by Cory Cove, Chris Hawkey and Paul “Meatsauce” Lambert and is one of the better-known morning radio shows in Minnesota.

One hundred and eighteen minutes into their Thursday, Oct. 13 show of this year, these radio jockeys were discussing a new restaurant in St. Paul called Herbie’s on the Park, named after legendary hockey coach Herb Brooks of “Miracle on Ice” fame, when they had their own inappropriate moment on the air.

“What was the name of that restaurant, Herbie’s on the Park?” one announcer said. “Hawkie’s sister goes to a restaurant called Herpes on the Park.”

“Have you been waiting the entire minute and a half to say that?” another one said.

“He loves that joke,” quipped a third.

“It’s true!” said the first announcer. “It’s bad when you miss your window so you have to ask someone to set it up for you again.”

Afterwards, they just giggled away at their own inability to make an inappropriate joke about a woman visiting a “restaurant” named after a sexually transmitted infection. What made these announcers think stuff like that is acceptable to say on the air is beyond this author’s comprehension, but they absolutely need to be called out for this kind of misogynistic language and told in no uncertain terms that it is not okay to make jokes like that.

PC culture this, don’t be a prude that. It should not be beyond us as a human species to treat women with respect.