Bryant Gumbel on U.S. women’s soccer team loss: Can we stop coddling women in sports?

[NFS4]

By Witters Sport, US PRESSWIRE
Real Sports Bryant Gumbel wants everyone to stop "coddling" losing female athletes such as the U.S. women's soccer team.

"Can we stop coddling women in sports? Are we now so fearful of being labeled sexist that we can't objectively assess the efforts of female athletes?" Gumbel said in a closing commentary. Those are both valid questions that have come to the fore in the wake of the patronizing reactions that have followed the USA's loss to Japan in the Women's World Cup soccer final."

Bryant believed the U.S. team failed to cash in on a wealth of early scoring chances, twice blew late leads with sloppy mistakes, and then got badly outplayed in penalty kicks.

"Had a men's team turned in a similar performance, papers and pundits nationwide would have had a field day assailing the players, criticizing the coach, and demanding widespread changes to a men's national team that flat out choked. Yet the common reaction to this ladies' loss were simply expressions of empathy for the defeat of the unfortunate darlings and pride in their oh-so-heroic effort."

Gumbel's comments aired last night. The episode will re-air July 19, 21, 24, 26, 28, 30 and Aug. 4.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2011/07/gumbel-stop-coddling-female-athletes/1
http://offthebench.nbcsports.com/20...am-loss-can-we-stop-coddling-women-in-sports/

 

[Gibson486]

lets see the fallout of this....

 

[waggy]

meh he is right. but you can't say it!

 

[Kirby]

Malcom X

 

[NFS4]

meh he is right. but you can't say it!

Yup. Just look at the Miami Heat

 

[mwtgg]

Malcom X

That episode was on last night. Hilarious.

Gumbel is an idiot, but he's right.

 

[Blackjack200]

No, he's an idiot. The US fans fell in love with the team in the quarter and semifinals, it's not surprising that they didn't not come down hard on them. The national women's soccer team has come in for plenty of criticism in recent years when they have come up short.

No one gave the US men's team any shit for losing to Ghana, all they could remember was Landon Donovan's goal against Algeria.

 

[Slick5150]

No, he's an idiot. The US fans fell in love with the team in the quarter and semifinals, it's not surprising that they didn't not come down hard on them. The national women's soccer team has come in for plenty of criticism in recent years when they have come up short.

No one gave the US men's team any shit for losing to Ghana, all they could remember was Landon Donovan's goal against Algeria.

The US Men's team wasn't supposed to win though. They were a decent team (no idea what their ranking was), but the women's team was the #1 team in the world and heavy favorites to win it all, especially against a team like Japan.

They did blow it, Gumbel's exactly right. They choked in the shootout and failed to capitalize throughout the game. If they want to be given the same treatment as we give any other team, that's a fair assessment of their performance.

 

[Blackjack200]

The US Men's team wasn't supposed to win though. They were a decent team (no idea what their ranking was), but the women's team was the #1 team in the world and heavy favorites to win it all, especially against a team like Japan.

They did blow it, Gumbel's exactly right. They choked in the shootout and failed to capitalize throughout the game. If they want to be given the same treatment as we give any other team, that's a fair assessment of their performance.

Uh, no. The US was one of the top teams, but Germany was the favorite. And Japan beat Germany as well as Sweden (another top team) so it's not like they didn't have some ability themselves.

The US men's team wasn't supposed to win it all, but they should have beaten freaking Ghana.

You can say what you want about the US team not catching enough heat for losing, but it has nothing to do with the fact that they're women, and everything to do with the circumstances and their performance in the tournament up to that point.

 

[Insomniator]

If anyone listens to the radio sports talk show 'the boomer and carton show' on wfan 660 in nyc this exact issue was in play. Craig kept calling the team choke artists (which is 100% true, they choked) and callers were calling up foaming at the mouth 'HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT THOSE POOR GIRLS LIKE THAT' blah blah blah. Meanwhile the Mets get called chokers every damn day on that program and no one cares, because it is also true.

These women are professional athletes just as open to criticism as any other pro players. The fact that no one gives a crap about womens' soccer, the WNBA, the LPGA etc... doesn't make difference.

 

[Blackjack200]

If anyone listens to the radio sports talk show 'the boomer and carton show' on wfan 660 in nyc this exact issue was in play. Craig kept calling the team choke artists (which is 100% true, they choked) and callers were calling up foaming at the mouth 'HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT THOSE POOR GIRLS LIKE THAT' blah blah blah. Meanwhile the Mets get called chokers every damn day on that program and no one cares, because it is also true.

These women are professional athletes just as open to criticism as any other pro players. The fact that no one gives a crap about womens' soccer, the WNBA, the LPGA etc... doesn't make difference.

How are they choke artists if they scored in the 122nd minute against Brazil? People need to get a life, it's one fucking game. I'd say that about men or women.

The Mets barely even count as a baseball team anymore.

 

[yuchai]

Uh, no. The US was one of the top teams, but Germany was the favorite. And Japan beat Germany as well as Sweden (another top team) so it's not like they didn't have some ability themselves.

The US men's team wasn't supposed to win it all, but they should have beaten freaking Ghana.

You can say what you want about the US team not catching enough heat for losing, but it has nothing to do with the fact that they're women, and everything to do with the circumstances and their performance in the tournament up to that point.

The US is one of the top teams in the WC? News to me. US supposed to beat Ghana? Maybe that's the expectation in the US, but if you ask most objective soccer fan they'd probably tell you otherwise (they are probably seen as roughly equal)

 

[Blackjack200]

The US is one of the top teams in the WC? News to me. US supposed to beat Ghana? Maybe that's the expectation in the US, but if you ask most objective soccer fan they'd probably tell you otherwise (they are probably seen as roughly equal)

The US mens team gets a pass against the superpowers: Brazil, Germany, Italy, etc. But against other nations they should expect themselves to win. No I don't think they choked against Ghana, nor do I think the US choked against Japan. If they didn't show up at all, I'd say they choked.

 

[yuchai]

The US mens team gets a pass against the superpowers: Brazil, Germany, Italy, etc. But against other nations they should expect themselves to win. No I don't think they choked against Ghana, nor do I think the US choked against Japan. If they didn't show up at all, I'd say they choked.

They are only expected to win against North/Central American teams. I compiled some results below, excluding top teams and North/Central American teams:

2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_men's_national_soccer_team_2011_results

Chile - draw
Paraguay - loss

2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_men's_national_soccer_team_2010_results

Netherlands - loss
Czech Republic - loss
Turkey - win
Australia -win
Poland - draw
Colombia - draw
South Africa - win
England - draw
Slovenia - draw
Algeria - win
Ghana - loss

2009
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_men's_national_soccer_team_2009_results#National_team

Sweden - win
Egypt - win
Slovakia - loss
Denmark - loss

They clearly hold their own but are just as likely to draw or lose to these teams.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

No, he's an idiot. The US fans fell in love with the team in the quarter and semifinals, it's not surprising that they didn't not come down hard on them. The national women's soccer team has come in for plenty of criticism in recent years when they have come up short.

No one gave the US men's team any shit for losing to Ghana, all they could remember was Landon Donovan's goal against Algeria.

They didn't give them any shit because the US doesn't give a shit about soccer.

 

[OlafSicky]

They didn't give them any shit because the US doesn't give a shit about soccer.

This
Any hot chicks on the team

 

[shortylickens]

This will not end well.

 

[dud]

No one wants to say it ... but this is all really irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that this country does not care enough about women's sports (in general) for this to be an issue. The US is relatively indifferent to women in sports.

He's right when it comes to if this had been a men's team ... the country would have been MUCH more critical.

 

[Andy22]

Jimmy the Greek was right and look where it got him!

 

[Via]

Gumbel's not the only one that stated this.

There were plenty of articles at maintstream outlets that implied exactly the same thing.

 

[BillGates]

It's soccer, who cares?

 

[Gooberlx2]

Had a men's team turned in a similar performance, papers and pundits nationwide would have had a field day assailing the players, criticizing the coach, and demanding widespread changes to a men's national team that flat out choked.

Had the USMNT made it to the WC final, people would have cause to jump with glee regardless of the result.

However, watch this year's Gold Cup final vs Mexico to witness exactly the sort of performance failure and reactions he's describing, for a competition of comparable expectations for the USMNT.

 

[Nintendesert]

He's right, everyone was out there congratulating them on how far they went etc. and instead they should have been criticizing them for sucking ass and blowing two leads and not even being able to kick a penalty kick on goal.

They are huge choke artists.

 

[Blackjack200]

He's right, everyone was out there congratulating them on how far they went etc. and instead they should have been criticizing them for sucking ass and blowing two leads and not even being able to kick a penalty kick on goal.

They are huge choke artists.

Are Sweden, Germany, and Brazil choke artists too then?

 

[Deeko]

On one hand - he has a point.
On the other hand, they weren't really "supposed" to be there anyway...if the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks had made the Superbowl & lost, people would have congratulated them on their run.