The female reporter everyone is talking about...

Ines Sainz. By now you know who this woman is unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past few days. Well, in case you didn't already know (Seriously, where have you been?) she is the Mexican female reporter who has been at the center of some recent controversy regarding female reporters in NFL locker rooms. Sainz attended a New York Jets practice last week with the hopes of interviewing Mark Sanchez, one of the few Hispanic players in the NFL and the Jets current quarterback. Sainz allegedly was harrassed by Jets players while she waited in the locker room. It has also been alleged that Rex Ryan and the defensive backs moved their drill period closer to Sainz in order to try and bump into her. Now while this may seem childish, I will defend the Jets players on this.

I was a high school football player. I remember what it was like when the cheerleaders or track girls would be running around the track during our practices. Some of us would intentionally throw the ball towards them in order to try and show off. No player can say they were not aware the girls were watching. Some of us would get reprimanded by our coaches for turning around to watch them do their cheers. While it is true that the Jets players are adults and professionals, at the end of the day they are football players who behave like children for the most part. They are being paid to play a game. It's not like they were in a corporate office discussing company assets and mergers.

All of this has spurred some heated debate about whether female reporters should be allowed in NFL locker rooms period. Let's use some common sense here. There are 53 men on an NFL team. That's 53 men with raging hormones. That's 53 men playing the most violent sport on this planet who are full of nothing but testosterone. They are in their locker room, their safe haven. They are showering, eating, watching television, listening to music, etc. Some of them are walking around naked, some of them are wearing close to nothing. Enter this woman:



You're a football player in a locker room full of dudes. This walks in. What are you going to do?

Is it realistic to expect 53 men to all be on their best behavior? Think of the atmosphere you are in. These guys are pulling pranks on one another, every other word out of their mouth starts with an F and ends with a K. They are basically in a frat house. How are they not going to whistle and make comments? Especially when she is dressed like this!

Call me a misogynist if you'd like. Call me a pig. I don't see how the Jets players are to blame for what happened to Ines Sainz. She very well knows what she looks like and she very well knows she's entering a locker room full of sweaty pigs. Anyone who will try to tell you these 53 men are supposed to be gentlemen with manners don't know much about football players. 

By the way, now that we're on the topic...Is Ines Sainz hotter than  Erin Andrews?

The female reporter everyone is talking about...

Jacory Harris' last tweet...

Jacory Harris has a history of responding to fans in a fashion that doesn't make much sense to me. Last year he told fans he didn't want them on the UM bandwagon when they had "disappeared" over the last few years. I have no problem with him talking like that except for the fact he has done nothing in his three years at the U to earn this right. If Willis McGahee says something like that, Edgerrin James, Clinton Portis, or any other UM great says that, it has a little more meaning. Jacory Harris says it and I scratch my head. Especially after he threw 17 interceptions last season and especially after his poor showing against Ohio State last week. Yesterday it was announced Head Coach Randy Shannon banned Twitter. (For full story click UM bans Twitter).

Jacory's comments before deactivating his Twitter account are more alarming:

"To the fans that's here only when things go right. Thank you. We loved you while you were here. Just know if everything goes as planned, don't come back. With that being said....God bless you! Negative or positive. I'm out!!"

Now here's my issue. When Jacory was first recruited out of Northwestern, I was a firm supporter. I believed Jacory would eventually beat out Robert Marve just because it appeared the writing was on the wall. After all, Jacory was part of the #1 rated recruiting class that came out of Northwestern. The fact Jacory split time his first year with Marve was done purposefully to force out Marve in my opinion. Whether that was Randy Shannon's intent or not, Marve left the U after a falling out with the coaching staff. Jacory has shown flashes of greatness during the last few years. Sometimes he hits Travis Benjamin on a deep pass and you can't help but feel, "Finally! We're back! The U is back!" The problem is he follows up a beautiful deep pass with an untimely interception and the occasional four pick game like the one he had against Ohio State.

Until Jacory Harris wins something significant I don't think he has earned any right to tell fans to jump off the UM bandwagon. Leave that to the players who have actually brought respect and honor to the football program. Leave that to Ray Lewis and Ed Reed. Just because you play for the U doesn't mean you are part of that circle. You have to earn that. So far Jacory has been nothing but inconsistent. I hope Randy Shannon keeps the Twitter ban all year long and that he bans their facebook accounts as well. All of the current
players should keep their mouths shut until they win something.

Jacory Harris playing for the Northwestern Bulls.

Jacory Harris' last tweet...

Twitter Ban at the U

Randy Shannon has banned his players from using Twitter. He says the team needs to regain focus. Is this shocking? Most coaches are control freaks. They have meticulous practice plans that are planned out to the minute. At 3:00 PM you have group drills. At 3:15, you break into individual drills. At 3:30, you work on a passing skeleton. The whistle blows and the players are expected to move around the practice field as quickly as possible. No time is wasted. A friend of mine who played college football told me he couldn't stand to have his whole life planned out for him. His class schedule was selected for him and he was expected to be in study hall while not in practice or lifting weights in the gym. Everything was pre-packaged. For some, this is a small sacrifice to pay in order to play college football. After all, only a very small percentage of us who play high school football make it to the next level.

Which brings me to my point. If it is well understood by anyone who follows college football that the coach is usually akin to a dictator, why is the media making such a big deal out of the fact that Randy Shannon banned Twitter? (Take this Quiz: Who said it? NFL Coach or Dictator?) C'mon. The Miami Dolphins run their organization like the Pentagon. The New England Patriots don't even tell the media when their players are injured, or when they do, they only vaguely describe the injury. The year the Patriots almost went undefeated (Thank you David Tyree and Eli Manning), Tom Brady was listed as having a shoulder injury the entire season. The only thing Twitter does is give the players more control over how they are perceived by their fans and media. However, the social networking site can cause distractions.

All it takes is for one player to post an inappropriate picture (Former Miami Heat player Michael Beasley accidentally posting pictures of his weed) and all of a sudden you have a public relations disaster on your hands that could lead to an NCAA investigation, more media pressure, and a giant headache for the University of Miami Athletics Department. What is shocking to me is how Shannon has not banned other social networking sites such as Facebook. Facebook is just as dangerous if not more dangerous than twitter because of the fact people post photo albums of virtually every social event they partake in.

 You went to a party this weekend? Someone took a picture. Were you drinking a beer? You better believe there is a picture somewhere out there. I'll give you a perfect example. Just last year I was at Chili's in Coconut Grove when I realized sitting right behind me was Graig Cooper, a running back who plays for the Hurricanes. I try as much as possible to not be "that annoying fan" who is always asking for autographs and pictures, but I figured he was sitting right behind me and I was really the only one who had noticed he was there. I approached him and asked if it was ok if I took a picture with him. He seemed very shy to be honest, but he took the picture with me (of course he threw up the "U" sign with his hands). Now what would have happened if Graig Cooper was out with a bunch of his friends drinking beers (nothing illegal about that by the way) and I secretly took a bunch of pictures from the corner and later posted them on my Twitter or Facebook account? Would people have made an issue out of it? Maybe, maybe not. What if he was at a strip club? What if he was smoking weed? Players need to be very careful what they do in public. This has always been an issue for all athletes, but even more so in this generation of camera phones.

Twitter Ban at the U