W.

I pulled my Internet up this week to get on Facebook and procrastinate working on a final term paper when a news story on ESPN caught my eye. Ok, actually it wasn’t the story itself. I saw a picture of a man and a woman standing next to each other with medals around their necks and a small headline proclaiming Alicia Shay back to running or something like that. I didn’t know who Alicia Shay was, at the time, didn’t really care that she could run and was coining my latest status update in my head when I read what was under the headline. Instead of a synopsis answering all questions Alicia Shay, it asked a question, “Seen EspnW lately? We’ve got a new look.”

 Now, Espn.com has been my homepage for over a year and I’ve never seen a mention of this Espn W. Not lately. Not ever. Status update completely forgotten I clicked on the link. What I found was EspnW.com, a spinoff Espn site for women sports fans and women athletes written by women sports fans and women athletes. Astonished that I had never heard or seen a word about this site before, I began to explore. The site explains it’s

           

ESPN's first business dedicated to serving female athletes and fans. We'll shine a brighter spotlight on women's sports, and put you in touch with top female athletes from across the globe. We'll give you added perspective on the men's and women's sports stories of the day -- with articles, blogs, videos and more on the players, games and scores that are top of mind for you. And we'll offer personal training tips and guidance from pro athletes, trainers and experts to help you connect with your inner athlete.

I actually had to read it twice before I believed it was true. This site has women covering BOTH women’s and men’s sports in every media medium available, something the original site would be hard pressed to claim. Additionally though, this site does more than cater informational reporting. It provides women across the nation the opportunity to connect with their communities through sports. There’s a column on the homepage titled “Things to do Near You.” Viewers can pick a sport, be it running, basketball, golf, baseball, football and yes, even cheerleading, type in their zip code, and be told of any activities near them they can participate in. If I was near Hilliard, OH and slightly in shape I would totally join the Beer Mug 10K. Ok, probably the Beer Mug 5K but still. I was also thrilled to see the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati listed, as it was an event I recognized. The point being though that this website goes beyond providing news. It doesn’t just educate women about who won the game or provide the details of the on-again, off-again NFL lockout. It not only accepts the average woman enjoys sports but encourages her to play along.     

What I found most impressive about the site was what was being written about. A few days before I discovered this site I had a lunch meeting with my adviser. She asked me to brainstorm some ideas for what I wanted to write about in the upcoming years of my academic career. I told her, people think I just write about how it’s useful for players to call the ball on the baseball diamond or how a team is marketed and presented through PR. My economic case-study of the Yankees was rejected at a conference because the reviewer felt I gave too much credit to sports as a political body. I want to prove naïve people like him wrong. I want to write about how sports provides an avenue to discuss political and societal issues like private institution rights vs. state school rights (BYU’s basketball team), homophobia in sports (Kobe Bryant’s slur), gender inequity (NFL Executive offices), how being a fan can become such a severe part of a person’s self-identity that it becomes okay in someone’s mind to beat someone simply for cheering for another team (Dodgers fan), and conversely, how sports brings communities together (New Orleans Saints) and can inspire a nation after terrorist attacks (New England Patriots). That’s what I want to write about. And that’s what the women on this site are doing. One writer analyzed the role of gender and leadership. Another told the story of a woman who cut her hair and dressed like a boy when she was a child in order to play baseball because girls weren’t allowed and even a 12-year-old in 1950 didn’t think that was fair. One player told of how she dealt with a hearing impairment as she developed into an All-American collegiate player and six-time WNBA All-Star. And my favorite article, which I intend to devote another blog entry to, looks at NFL culture and questions if the acceptance of gay players will ever occur. It seems these topics are deemed too taboo or controversial or are maybe just viewed as unimportant by the main site but articles dealing with societal issues like these are commonplace on this site. 

I was blown away by what I was reading. I was immediately the biggest fan these women have ever had. So I went to check out the list of whom the writers and editors were. Impressed does not begin to describe. I’m not an avid women’s sports fan but even I recognized the names of Tamika Catchings, Julie Foudy, Jessica Mendoza, Summer Sanders, Annika Sorenstam, Lisa Leslie, and Pat Summitt. There’s also the first WNBA president and current professor at Columbia University, a WNBA rookie All-Star, an X-gamer and many writers of very prestigious posts. These women have degrees from UCLA’s law school, Stanford, USC, the University of Pennsylvania, Florida, and Cornell. They’ve written books, worked for newspapers, Mendoza is even a board member of the National Education Association Foundation. In other words, these are smart women, writing about smart sports issues in an extremely intelligent way.

I’ve only barely begun to scratch the surface of this website but I plan to keep digging with every moment of my free time. I highly recommend you do the same. This could be the most comprehensive and intelligent sports news page available. The motto of the page is “one letter says a lot.” The letter of the day, my friends, is W.