A Letter to Stephen A. (and ESPN in general)

To be transparent, I “watch” First Take everyday that I’m working from home and by “watch” I mean turn on ESPN as I’m getting ready for work. It serves as great background noise. So maybe I am part of the problem. The problem that gives these people ratings just because I’m a sports fan myself. And so yea, I sometimes care about what Stephen A has to yell about. I like Kendrick’s appearances. I like Molly, sure. And so maybe I need to ween myself off of tuning into them even if it’s purely for filling the void the silence of the morning brings. Because for as long as I have tuned into First Take and Get Up, they have NEVER enthusiastically opined about a WNBA or NWSL game as much as they bloviate about Lebron’s legacy or the Cowboys. And why should they? No one asks them too and they don’t feel obligated to do so. No one in that production meeting says “HEY! Maybe we should talk about the Jewell Loyd buzzer beater from to lift the Storm over the Wings only to have Arike Ogunbawale hit a buzzer beater to beat the Storm 2 days later!” Or “HEY! Griner dunked again. We should talk about the evolution of women’s sports and how it’ll only get better.” Or “HEY! Taurasi is hurt. Let’s talk about her legacy and the mark she’ll leave on the women’s game when she finally hangs up her jersey.” OR “HEY! Tina Charles had another 30 point game: is she the MVP this season?” Like come on man, I’m giving you free ideas here. Take one.

I’m not the only woman who tunes into ESPN. I’m also not the only fan of women’s sports that watches ESPN and somehow my demographic is consistently alienated to appease the men who watches ESPN who will punch the shit out of their TV if one of their lil shows mentions women. First Take has had Chiney Ogwumike, Monica McNutt, LaChina Robinson all on their show. Are they asking them about the WNBA? No. They talk about the NBA. CHINEY OGWUMIKE WORKS FOR ESPN AS AN ANALYST ALL THE WHILE PLAYING IN THE WNBA. Why aren’t you having her on to talk and dissect the games from the night before? Why not Candace Parker?! Free her from the bullshit she has to do with Shaq on TNT and give her real space and voice to talk about the games. Bring her on NOW to talk about the Sky and her injury. Bring on Holly Rowe for a weekly segment as much as you bring on Kendrick and Louis and all them other guys. Like you would think this would be easy. But for some reason it’s seen as this great hurdle no one at ESPN wants to climb and it’s so sad. So disappointing.

I remember one day a couple months ago where Stephen A. mentioned that he was getting into Hockey. Hockey. I can’t make this shit up. Hockey. Skip over women’s sports. Stephen A. is going to talk to us about hockey. And hey, Stephen A has made such a name for himself that he has Stephen A’s World now literally, good for him. But it’s such a bad look to me when the only time he brings on WNBA players to interview them is when their housing situation at the Wubble wasn’t appropriate or he brings them on for 5 minutes tops to talk about social issues (and i’m saying Stephen A. because First Take is HIS show and I know he has the say so as to what’s discussed and who shows up like…Quavo…of the Migos…who will be on the show this week). Word to Alysha Clark of the Mystics for going on First Take during the wubble season and not allowing them to just shine light on the negative, but urged them to shine light on ALL the good in the league. Imagine if someone of Stephen A’s stature paid even a little attention and made space on their shows to discuss the WNBA in its totality (games, players, trades, storylines, etc). Imagine the attention and the ratings and the new fans it could potentially bring to the league. Just imagine with me for a bit. Ball’s in their court.