Another Set Of Allegations

We will spare you the details of the allegations in the lawsuit. You can find them elsewhere and they are both nasty and allegations yet to be proved.

The NFL Network and ESPN on Tuesday suspended five former football players, including Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk. A former NFL Network employee, Jami Cantor, accuses them of repeated sexual harassment when all were at the NFL Network.

Other ex-players named in the suit are Ike Taylor and Heath Evans, plus Donovan McNabb and Eric Davis, who now ply their trade for ESPN. Also named was Warren Sapp, fired by the NFL Network in 2015 after he was arrested in Phoenix for propositioning a prostitute.

One temptation is to say that perhaps real journalists and not former players might have been better choices. As Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer and others have shown, that’s not the case.

So let’s ask a few simple questions that apparently have no real answers.

Like, what happened to basic decency and respect for coworkers? What would possess anyone to text or email words or videos of a sexual nature to anyone, thereby leaving an electronic trail? What happened to intelligence?

Again, the evidence must be presented, but Cantor’s attorney, Laura Horton, says she has it and that’s a claim easy enough to substantiate.

Women fight a difficult enough battle to be accepted as part of the sports media. Many people believe women don’t belong in a men’s locker room; many people believe no one but the athletes belong in there. Your friendly neighborhood blog made his living interviewing people in various states of undress and didn’t find it to be great fun. And women’s sports teams certainly don’t allow access to the locker room.

So, maybe we can just start here. Women are people – real people. They’re trying to do their jobs. They deserve to be treated as exactly what they are – your professional associates.

Hey, maybe this isn’t so complicated after all. If you wouldn’t send that text or email or video to your mother, presumably a woman, don’t send it to your coworker. Your career and reputation hinge on you not being an idiot.

If you can’t resist temptation, avoid it. Behave yourself.

 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman