LSU women’s basketball head coach Pokey Chapman has resigned from the team and will not coach them in the NCAA Tournament after allegations of an inappropriate sexual relationship with a former player.
Obviously, the implication is that this is a lesbian relationship. And while nothing is wrong with that, it will be interesting to see how ESPN covers this story — if at all.
Certainly, Pokey Chapman having a sexual relationship with a player is not the same as John Amaechi coming out. Still, it will be very telling if ESPN glosses over this story as it did over the allegations that L.A. Sparks center Latasha Byears raped a teammate in 2003.
Women in a homosexual relationship are generally viewed differently than men. To give a simple example, the male demographic that dominates sports viewing will groan at the sight two men kissing, and cheer at the sight of two women kissing. This manifests itself into nearly polar opposite reactions to homosexuality in sports.
When a male athlete comes out of the closet, most recently John Amaechi, the story lasts for weeks and gets mainstream attention. When a much more high-profile female athlete, Sheryl Swoopes, came out during her career, it was hardly a blip on the sports media radar.
If a men’s basketball coach resigned due to a homosexual relationship with one of his players, the story would be plastered all over ESPN and its multiple media outlets. It would be the lead story on the morning shows, attract the attention of the Paula Zahns and the Oprah Winfreys of the world, and stay in the headlines for several weeks. It would be Armageddon for the school involved — especially if it occurred prior to the NCAA Tournament.
Instead of endless media attention, the Pokey Chapman scandal will likely get some sparse mentions on Outside the Lines and a newsmagazine here and there before fading out rather quickly. Yes, LSU will be seriously affected, but the general sports viewing public won’t care.
What does this say about sports and mainstream media? For one, when homophobia and sexism come into play, sexism usually wins out. Gay men in a relationship are viewed as sickening, wrong and reprehensible. Gay women in a relationship, provided they provide an adequate amount of T&A, are viewed as hot and exciting, and at the very least, acceptable.
When John Amaechi came out, it was a question of how people in the locker rooms could deal with someone like him, and how he could deal with his teammates. The assumption was that there was major conflict. When Sheryl Swoopes came out, the same questions were raised, but almost as a courtesy. There was no real expectation of conflict and no real controversy. She was a woman, and it was okay — and if she had been a little younger, a lot whiter, and a little skinnier, it would have been much more than okay.
All of which is to say that ESPN falls into the same trap as its viewers in this regard. The network gave Swoopes some attention when she came out, but nowhere near the almost ridiculous levels of attention the network gave Amaechi. And the Byears story — as scandalous as any in sports in many years — got literally no attention on ESPN (and not because the network was trying to protect the WNBA). The day when a male athlete accuses one of his teammates of rape, SportsCenter will go live for five straight hours, with every single possible viewpoint on the topic. At least two panelists on Around the Horn will die after their heads explode from mental overload.
This isn’t nearly to the level of the Byears story; however, women’s college basketball trounces the WNBA in mainstream attention, so the Chapman scandal should get at least one half-hour on Outside the Lines. Still, it doesn’t say much about sports media that, if a man had done the same thing, it would be a cataclysmic controversy.
