Inez Sainz and Zeke Mowatt...has there been progress?

So, yeah, there she is with some fine upstanding baby-kissing teddybears from the Indy Colts, I guess. Could be Dallas. Can't really tell. But, yeah, that's her.

Ms. Sainz is a journalist from Brasil who covers sporting events for (I could be wrong) a Mexican TV network. She's more well-known today than she was 4 days ago, I'm betting.

Allegedly, some of the fine, upstanding players for the NY Jets harassed her....somehow. I watched her interview with Meredith Viera this morning at 7:30, and what I took away from it was that she thought members of the team (she was in the locker room) were talking about her. She says she heard nothing explicit or derogatory....just that they were talking about her. Couldn't identify what was said...but she was certain they were talking about her.

Um, oooooooooook.

I've said somewhere (Facebook, e-mail, my line of inspirational books....the line blurs) that girls mess up football. I was joking, they don't. I've met ladies who are big fans, and some who are more versed in the game than myself. It's pretty obvious in today's world that there's a place at the table for the female NFL fan. Big tent, right?

In 1988 or so, I recall the New England Patriots getting into a similar bind with a Boston area reporter who was in the locker room. These players were rude and threatening. I think that the highest-profile player was a guy named Zeke Mowatt, who was a NY Giant tight-end who'd moved to New England. Anyway, these Patriot players were naked and walking towards this woman reporter, apparently combining physically threatening behavior with lewd words and gestures.

There was a big fuss made of this, and rightly so. Yes, it was a locker room...but no, fellas, you can't do anything you want. She wasn't a groupie or some fan looking to find a baby's daddy. She was a legit Boston reporter looking to interview players after a game. My recollection is that Patriot ownership dealt with those guys rather harshly.

Fast-forward, and reference the photo above. The Brasilian reporter deserves to be treated with dignity and decorum. By all accounts, she was. The Today show interview featured some of her modeling shots, and Meredith Viera suggested that, somehow, the provocative photos might be inappropriate for a journalist who wants to be taken seriously. Apparently, this particular reporter struts around the sidelines in tank-tops and bootie jeans. She looks great, I can't take that away from her. And, as far as she can explain, the Jets players were "saying something" that she interpreted to be "about her."

As much as I'd like to slam the Jets, I don't see it. If she could state, "they were coming on to me and making sexual comments" then I'd get it. This almost reeks of the reporter's own ego getting in the way of a story - and making a new one up in the process.

I clerked for a crusty old Judge, who advised me once to stack juries with women. I had to ask why, so he told me that they'll make their minds up quickly and then never doubt their own judgments - even if they're incorrect. In this case, applying his fairly misogynistic reasoning, if she decided that "they were talking about" her - even if they were not - it wouldn't matter, she'd have made up her mind.

While it's true that some women can be , and choose to be, of the closed-minded type...the same is true of men. I'd have no idea if that's the case with Ms. Sainz. But I would argue that some decorum is required in this world if you want to be taken seriously by others. A lawyer would not go into court with flip-flops on. An accountant would not meet his prospective corporate clients in ripped tee-shirt and jeans. A President would not address this country in his swimming trunks.

Similarly, if she wants to be taken seriously by the subjects of her interviews, Ms. Sainz should consider how she is dressing and carrying herself around the locker rooms of the various sports teams she covers. If it walks like a bimbo, and talks like a bimbo, and dresses like a bimbo....this aint exactly rocket science, folks.

I'd argue that we have come a long way since 1988 and Zeke Mowatt. The Jets players might not have been perfectly behaved little angels, here, but they were a far sight better-behaved than Zeke and the Pats were all those years ago.

Much ado about very little. Nothing to see, folks, move on.