McCown Makes Controversial Comment

Let me preface this by saying that I’m am probably one of the bigger fans of Bob McCown in this country. I listen to his show regularly for a variety of reasons, from his guests to the topics he discusses (not just hockey) to his commentary on various sports issues in Ontario and throughout Canada. One thing Bob has always been known for is telling it like it is, which can lead to controversy. On Tuesday McCown opened his Primetime Sports show with comments on women’s sports. Of course for those who don’t know, Tuesday was international women’s day. Now we all know that women’s sports are not as popular as men’s and a variety of reasons for that. One would be that, in most sports, women simply don’t have the athletic ability of men. Another would be that it is difficult for any women to be a full time athlete for any period of time because it prevents them from starting a family. Anyway, I think that some may find Bob’s comments interesting. This is a quote of how he opened his show on Tuesday:

[Women’s sport] is a topic we have addressed on this program and the essence, the entire essence of the conversation revolved, I thought, around the wrong thing. It’s not whether women’s sport is any good or not. The sole motivation for any man to watch women’s sport is: are they half naked? Are they good looking? Other than that, it don’t matter. I don’t care what the quality of competition is. I don’t care how good they are. I don’t care if its a World Championship or your next door neighbour. Guys are only interested in women’s sport if it’s good looking chicks.

McCown went on to say:

[Andrew] Crystal made reference to my love for women’s curlers. Well it’s not true. Women’s curling as I have said on many, many occasions is dramatically inferior to men’s curling… That they don’t have a complete grasp of strategy is puzzling to me. But there must be something in the genes with that too. But I’ll watch women’s curling if there’s a good looking curler out there. Its as simple as that. It’s not about my competitive fires being ignited. These are entirely different fight [sic] fires that are being ignited when I watch women in sports.

And then on to volleyball (we can assume of the beach variety):

And what is the compulsion with women’s volleyball? Have you actually watched women’s volleyball? I have never. I have never seen a women’s volleyball player that I would consider to be attractive. I’m not saying they’re all dogs… but it’s just not overwhelming, you know what I mean? Hockey you ain’t gonna watch cause you can’t see them. Soccer I’d never watch cause its soccer. And why would you watch an inferior product? You don’t get enough closeups in soccer anyway to tell whether they’re attractive or not. And that is the essence for all men. End of topic, end of discussion. Give me an attractive woman playing a sport and I’ll watch it.

Alright, so that is a lot of stuff to go over. I think he was wrong to say that all men watch women’s sports because they are good looking. Having said that, he is most likely right. I still don’t think it was the correct thing to say on air. I think that we have to look at what women’s sports have moderately close to the same interest as their male counterparts. I’d say that the only two that come to mind are curling and tennis. These two sports have three things in common. One is that prize money is close to men’s, if not equal. The second is they play many events integrated with their male counterparts, so if someone tunes in to see the men and they see the women it starts to generate interest, which can then help sustain women-only sports. The final is that they all have short, tournament style competitions. These guidelines would immediately knock off team sports like hockey or basketball or soccer from being popular on the women’s side. The only thing that has confused me is why women’s golf has never caught on. My best guess is because it competes head to head with the PGA Tour. Its not like it lacks quality golfers. Or good personalties.

On to the second quote. My problem here is that McCown is kind of saying that women can’t comprehend some things men can, even if he didn’t intend for it to sound that way.  The real problem with strategy in women’s curling, and women’s tennis too, is coaching. Players tend to rely on fathers as coaches for their entire life and they simply don’t learn new things from new people the way men do when they change it up every few years. I also don’t think it is entirely fair to say that the only reason men watch women’s curling is if someone good looking is playing. Am I more likely to watch women’s curling if Jennifer Jones, Eve Muirhead or Madeleine Dupont are playing? Yeah probably. But is it the sole reason I’d watch? Nope. I’ve already made up my mind that I’ll watch the Women’s Worlds final even though I don’t have a clue who is in it yet (and for that matter I know none of those three will be).

I want to know when Bob became an expert on volleyball. One sentence he says that he has never watched volleyball; then the next he says that he has never seen one that he considers attractive. If he doesn’t even know any volleyball players then how can he possibly judge them? I would like to present to Bob Misty May-Treanor, who is just one of the many fine looking women in volleyball. McCown has obviously never watched women’s volleyball because if he did he would know that it is a very good on court product compared to some other women’s sports.

Women’s hockey, especially at the Olympics, is one of the higher rated women’s sports in Canada, so Bob’s logic is wrong there. Of course at last year’s Olympics women’s hockey didn’t get the ratings that men’s hockey did, but it best most other sports. In Europe sports like alpine skiing and speed skating are among the most popular women’s sports. You don’t exactly see a lot of skin in those sports either.

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t watch a lot of women’s sports. I’ll watch just about any sport at a World Championship event where I get to cheer for Team Canada. I’ll also watch tennis, snowboarding freestyle skiing and occasionally curling at other high level events. But honestly, watching a Canadian woman win a gold medal at the Olympics is just as good, if not better, than watching a man win a medal, regardless of how good she looks. Same goes for Canada playing in a final at the FIFA Women’s World Cup or Women’s World Hockey Championships.

I don’t know what is worse, that McCown spoke his mind or that he was actually right on some of it. I just want to know how Bob would feel if women didn’t watch his show because they thought he was ugly.