As reported here, a complaint was made by the Association for Women in Sports Media against the New York Jets, citing sexually harassing behavior directed toward Mexican television reporter Inés Sainz at Saturday’s team practice and in the locker room afterwards.
In response, the National Football League has launched an investigation to verify the complaint’s legitimacy. Meanwhile, team officials are doing everything within their power to diffuse the situation as expeditiously and painlessly as possible.
However, less than one day later, Sainz provided new perspective on an incident that has taken much of the focus away from Gang Green’s Monday Night Football home opener at the new Meadowlands Stadium against the Baltimore Ravens.
According to the New York Post, in a piece that ran for the Mexican television station DeporTV Sunday evening, the former Miss Spain said she never felt offended and that the whole situation was taken out of context.
"In my opinion, I never felt attacked, nor that they reacted grossly toward me," Sainz said. "I arrived in the locker room and there were comments and games. One of the other reporters came up to me and apologized for what was happening, but I thought the players were joking around."
Sainz did confirm that during the portion of practice open to the media, Jets head coach Rex Ryan and defensive backs coach Dennis Thurman purposely overthrew passes so they would land near her.
Following practice, several players allegedly bellowed and howled their approval when Sainz entered the locker room, prompting a colleague to ask if she was OK when the behavior being exhibited became a glaring embarrassment.
But although Sainz is attempting to write this off as simply a case of ‘Boys Will Be Boys’ and a board member from the Association of Women in Sports Media has accepted an invitation from the Jets organization for an educational session within the next couple of weeks, disciplinary action must be taken if there is any truthfulness to the allegations against the Jets because their behavior was inexcusable, unacceptable and unprofessional.
In addition, the NFL would set a negative precedent by indirectly approving of conduct that should be long out of the systems of grown men who are, in most cases, husbands, fathers and/or role models.
"Thanks everyone for your support," Sainz wrote on her Twitter page Monday morning. "I already spoke to the NFL, which will decide if there will or will not be consequences. I can say that at the time I didn't want to pay attention to what was happening but the rest of the media heard clearly and in solidarity have denounced what happened, hoping that there is always a respectful climate."
And in the grand scheme of things, the NFL and all the teams under its banner are obligated to provide a respectful climate to the male and female members of the media. In turn, the media has an obligation to be respectful of the privacy and time of the athletes it covers on a daily basis.
This would be the case in a perfect world. But when dealing with imperfect people, in a day and age where self-gratification rules, this ideal has become virtually impossible to attain.
God help us all.
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Female Reporter Not Offended by NY Jets’ Alleged Sexually Harassing Behavior
