Lamar University, located in Beaumont, Texas, is in the midst of its inaugural softball season. Head coach Holly Bruder went on ESPN Radio 97.5 Houston last week to talk about her program. The radio hosts, Dave Tepper and Jerome Solomon, asked some less than conventional questions.
What's interesting is that before asking Bruder about her players' looks and physical attributes, they first asked her about the controversy surrounding CBS Houston's article questioning whether or not an OKC cheerleader was too fat. Bruder responded that she was "pretty hefty" for a dancer. But that's a different conversation for another day. (What's in the water down there in Houston, anyways?)
Tepper goes on to ask her if she has any "Jenny Finch looking girls" that he can come watch. Then he kind of just really goes off the rails – mentioning Lamar could sell more softball tickets if the players wore less and recruited Kate Upton, among other things. Here's the full audio from the Beaumont Enterprise…
It's really disheartening the lack of respect shown towards women's sports in general. Whether or not these questions were meant to be serious, it's an embarrassing episode. After one or two questions about the program (building it from the ground up and recruiting) all they do is ask about women's appearance in general, and not in a flattering way.
Would Bruder recruit Kate Upton? Is it a benefit for players to have full sized chests? It goes on and on. The Facebook page for Tepper and Solomon's show, The Rush, would be funny if it wasn't so sad. Just have a look at their "take" on Jason Collins or their cover photo as examples.
If Tepper would like to see softball players wearing less, I suggest he watch A League of Their Own. Incidentally, the 1940's might be a decade he's more comfortable living in.
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About Reva Friedel
Reva is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and the AP Party. She lives in Orange County and roots for zero California teams.