ESPN analyst Mina Kimes says the scandal involving former NFL reporter Dianna Russini and New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel has given bad-faith actors an excuse to target women.
For background, an ESPN report earlier this week cited anonymous female reporters who claimed the scandal has caused them to navigate their jobs differently.
“One reporter said an assistant coach told her he would not want to be seen meeting her for a coffee, specifically citing the optics of the Vrabel-Russini situation,” ESPN reported.
Kimes discussed the report on a podcast with Charlotte Wilder this week, accusing fans of creating a negative narrative around women in sports.
“I think it reflects sort of a broader thing that happens in any industry, which is when someone who’s not in the majority makes any sort of error, it becomes a referendum for their entire class,” Kimes said.
She added that critics are not applying the same standards to other insiders.
“Giving license to male sports fans generally to speak about them a certain way, or to honestly talk about this story in a way that they don’t with other stories involving lapses in journalism. It’s been interesting to watch on the Russini side of it, this massive conversation on the internet about, ‘This is a crime against journalism, and no one’s talking about it’ … it’s kind of hard to take those critiques in good faith when they’re clearly not coming from a place of, these aren’t people who actually care about journalism.” Kimes added.
Wilder took a more pointed stance, accusing fans of misogyny.
“It seems to me that to blame one woman for making a mistake and saying that she has screwed it up for everybody else, nobody does that for men,” Wilder said. “I understand that it is different; she was in a very high-profile position, but it doesn’t sit right, I don’t think.”
“It gives license to people, perhaps, who are looking for an excuse to not treat women the same way, and then run with it,” she added.
Got all that?
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Kimes and Wilder did not add much substance to the conversation, but the ESPN report is notable.
For months, various women in sports media have expressed concerns to OutKick that Russini’s blunder could reflect negatively on them. It is also understandable that male officials around the league would now be more cognizant of spending time alone with female reporters, given the potential narratives.
Granted, these dynamics were in place long before photos surfaced of Russini hugging and holding hands with a current football coach. The perception of relationships between men and women will always be viewed differently by some observers.
The same would be true if a male reporter were alone with a female coach in the WNBA.
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We would, however, push back on Wilder’s claim that Russini “screwed it up” for all women. While coaches and officials might be more careful around female reporters, the general view of women in the industry has not changed.
No honest media executive or source thinks differently of Stacey Dales, Charissa Thompson, Laura Rutledge, Erin Andrews, Sage Steele or other top women in sports media because of Russini’s photos.
Kimes and Wilder seem to be, predictably, putting too much stock in what anonymous social media trolls post.
For example, ESPN reporter Taylor McGregor gained national attention this week for her stellar on-air reporting during the Florida State-SMU power outage. No serious person questioned her credentials because Russini allegedly spent time on a boat with Vrabel while she was seven months pregnant.
Kimes and, especially, Wilder appear to want to make this dynamic larger than it is. The Russini story is not going to be a roadblock in their careers.
Trying to portray themselves as victims so often, however, might.
