Texas A and M has suspended two assistant football coaches for taking locker-room talk and putting crude and stupid jokes about football and women into a slideshow presentation at the university’s annual “Chalktalk for Women” presentation. Offensive line coach, Jim Turner, and tight end coach, Jeff Banks, put up some rather offensive to women jokes which usually would never leave a locker-room and certainly would never be appropriate for a fundraiser, whether it was a crowd of men only, women only, or both men and women. If the name Jim Turner sounds familiar, it may be because Turner was the Miami Dolphins offensive line coach when Richie Incognito bullied Jonathan Martin. Turner was let go by Miami Dolphins ownership in February 2014 because of poor judgment.
In all sport, the locker room is a sacred place; what is said in the locker room is supposed to stay in the locker room. It is the same way in the owner’s box as well. There is a lot of sexism. If you don’t believe that, there was an exchange in 2001 between a reporter and then Baltimore Ravens owner Art Modell. Modell was complaining during the NFL Spring owners meeting about Vince McMahon’s NFL selling sex and violence. But that was the NFL formula selling the NFL. Art needed to be reminded about the allure of the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders and all of the tight, close up and somewhat provocative TV shots of scantily clad women, cheerleaders and good looking woman crowd shots. Modell shut up. That’s sports; that’s the locker room mentality, the owner’s box and on the minds of TV executives. Turner and Smith are out for two games and will do 20 hours of community service. Will this end sexism in sports? No it won’t. But sports organizations will do seminars to remind the boys that the boys better mind their manners.
By Evan Weiner for The Politics of Sports Business.
This article was republished with permission from the original publisher, Evan Weiner.