Episode 4: stadium funding, Collette Smith in the NFL, and Katie Barnes on LGBTQ issues in sport

In Episode 4 of Burn It All Down, Julie DiCaro, Jessica Luther, Brenda Elsey, Shireen Ahmed, and Lindsay Gibbs discuss the funding issues surrounding the new Raiders stadium in Las Vegas, the New York Jets’ hiring of Collette Smith as a defensive backs coach, and Jessica’s interview with Katie Barnes of espnW. Plus you’ll hear Listener Mail, The Burn Pile, and Badass Woman of the Week!

The horrible publicly-funded Las Vegas NFL stadium deal (7:07) The Jets hire a female coach, Collette Smith (13:50) Jessica Luther talks with Katie Barnes of espnW about LGBTQ issues in sports (24:19) Katie gives their Bachelorette take (25:15) THE BURN PILE — LaVar Ball tells Kristine Leahy to “Stay in your lane” and then selling t-shirts (26:50) Kristine Leahy and white feminism (28:10) British soccer child sex abuse scandal reaches 560 alleged victims (30:30) Floyd Mayweather’s new strip club, “Girl Collection” (32:30) LeBron hate — but seriously, how is there still so much LeBron hate? (34:15) Bad Ass Woman of the Week, tennis star Petra Kvitova (35:55) Honorable Mentions — Tamari Davis, 7th grade track phenom (36:40) Emma Hayes takes on the Football Association;’s sexism (37:50) Listener mail

Links

Deadspin’s T.M. Brown on Deadspin on the horrible Las Vegas Raiders stadium deal: http://deadspin.com/the-raiders-robbed-las-vegas-in-americas-worst-stadium-1795475973

Pacific Standard article from 2015 on The Impossible Fight Against America’s Stadiums: https://psmag.com/economics/the-shady-money-behind-americas-sports-stadiums

The New York Jets hire Collette Smith: https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/05/25/jets-hire-collette-smith

International Women’s Football League: http://www.iwflsports.com/

Barnes on the NBA choosing Charlotte to host the 2019 All-Star Game: http://www.espn.com/espnw/voices/article/19452534/with-charlotte-getting-nba-all-star-game-anti-lgbtq-repercussions-officially-dead

Barnes’ profile of Lex Clay, trans man and former softball player: http://www.espn.com/espnw/sports/article/19367599/2017-ncaa-softball-former-tennessee-volunteer-lex-clay-recalls-moment-time-2007-women-college-world-series

Barnes interview with the new Bachelorette, Rachel Lindsay: http://www.espn.com/espnw/culture/article/19435659/qa-rachel-lindsay-first-african-american-bachelorette  

LaVar Ball and the “Stay In Your Lane” shirts: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/05/25/lavar-ball-turned-a-potentially-sexist-remark-into-a-t-shirt-and-its-just-part-of-his-shtick/?utm_term=.c55cdfa806cc

Here’s why LaVar Ball was so upset with Kristine Leahy: http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/news/lavar-ball-women-kristine-leahy-video-the-herd-colin-cowherd/5q1ffhx0ujlt1xwz8cpnsd83f

Gibbs on the worst sexual abuse scandal in British soccer history, which is up to 560 victims https://thinkprogress.org/english-soccer-sex-abuse-update-4fff9dd28ad7

Another example of why LeBron is awesome: http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/ambassadors-from-lebron-james-family-foundation-help-open-cedar-point-s-new-water-park-1.769674

Another example of why Floyd Mayweather is horrible: http://www.mlive.com/mayweather/2017/05/floyd_mayweather-owned_strip_c.html

Petra Kvitova wins in emotional return to tennis at French Open: https://www.si.com/tennis/2017/05/28/petra-kvitova-attack-return-french-open

7th Grade Phenom Tamari Davis Stars At Flo Golden South: http://www.flotrack.org/article/42234-7th-grade-phenom-tamari-davis-stars-at-flo-golden-south#.WTDcJxgrK3A

Emma Hayes: FA treats refereeing for women’s game as ‘afterthought’: http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/40042830

Transcript

Julie: Hey, it's Julie. Thanks for downloading Burn It All Down. If you enjoy the podcast and want to help us out, the best way to do so is to subscribe and leave a rating and review on iTunes or Stitcher subscriptions. Ratings, and reviews help us reach more listeners and you'll have our undying appreciation. You can also subscribe at TuneIn. Thanks so much, and enjoy the show.

Welcome to this week at Burn It All Down. It may not be the feminist sports podcast you want, but it's the feminist sports podcast you need. This week, our panel includes author Jessica Luther, who wrote Unsportsmanlike Conduct: College Football and the Politics of Rape; Shireen Ahmed, sportswriter, who focuses on the intersection of sports and race; Lindsay Gibbs, sportswriter for ThinkProgress; Brenda Elsey, an associate professor at Hofstra University who studies politics, sports, and gender. And as for me, I'm Julie DiCaro, a sportswriter and sports radio host in Chicago.

This week, we'll discuss the soon to be publicly subsidized NFL stadium in Las Vegas, the New York Jets make a surprising hire, and we'll have an interview with ESPN journalist Katie Barnes. So, let's jump right into topic number one, which is the absolute travesty that is the plan to fund a new NFL stadium in Las Vegas. If you haven't heard, the Raiders are moving to Las Vegas in 2020, and waiting for them there will be the most expensive stadium in the world for a single NFL franchise. The total cost of the site is going to be around $1.9 billion. That's a number topped by the Rams’ and Chargers’ new stadium in Inglewood. It'll cost a little over $2 billion, but that number includes the redevelopment of an entire section of Los Angeles, including construction of retail and commercial space.

There's a great Deadspin piece on this by T.M. Brown, and we'll make sure to link that in the show notes. Las Vegas is the 40th largest media market in the world. It's behind places like Hartford and West Palm Beach. And they're going to build a $1.9 billion stadium for a team that will be there eight times a year. And Nevada taxpayers are paying for almost half of it. At $750 million, it’s the largest direct public subsidy for a stadium ever granted.

The city is going to raise hotel room taxes by less than 1% in order to be able to pay back the city. Over the course of the next 30 years, the cost is going to go up by another $200 million thanks to infrastructure improvements needed to relieve traffic around the area. So we're talking about things like intersections and off- and on-ramps to the highway. But what makes this particularly egregious is that elementary schools in Las Vegas have had to adopt year-round schedules because of budget shortfalls. Kids are walking several miles to school because of the transportation budget. So, just like the story that we hear in so many cities is that they can subsidize the football team, but they can't subsidize schools. 

Jessica: Yeah, I think the stadium issue, for me, the thing about this Las Vegas stadium is that it's the end of the sort of a horrific chain of public funding for stadiums over the last 15 years or so. So, in 2015, there was a Pacific Standard piece by Chris Heller, and this is what he said at the beginning: “Over the past 15 years, more than $12 billion in public money has been spent on privately owned stadiums. Between 1991 and 2010, 101 new stadiums were opened across the country. Nearly all those projects were funded by taxpayers.” Going off what you just said, Julie, why do we love sport this much? Like, how are we having children walking to school instead of taking buses? And we can then instead fund football stadiums.

Julie: Right. And in Chicago, we're having exactly the same issue, and they wanted to fund the Olympics! It's really frustrating to see that there is never ever money for schools, but there is always money for this kind of stuff. Brenda?

Brenda: Yeah. I would just like to point out too that in the case of a stadium project like the Dome, which was built to lure the Rams back to St. Louis, and they stayed there, what, nine seasons? And bankrupted the schools in the process. We also see that this is happening in areas where the school district is primarily made up of students of color. So, I think that it really intersects with race here as well. Las Vegas, even though it might be down in the rankings of markets, it's actually really high in the rankings of school districts. So, it's about the fourth, the fifth largest school district in the country? And a good number, I would say…Oh yeah, no, the majority, now that I referenced my notes here, the majority of students are students of color. About over a quarter are African-American, and almost a half are Latino. So, you can see here that race is a big part of when they're willing to do it. It's not only they don't subsidize schools, they subsidize stadiums – it's actually schools subsidizing stadiums. Which is shocking.

Julie: Yeah. And I guess for me, what's so surprising about this always is that the public lets it happen, that there’s no public protest about this, there's no one in the streets. I mean, I'm sure they're talking about it at school district meetings and PTA meetings, but on a large scale, there's really no one that objects to this stuff, and so it just keeps getting pushed through. Lindsay?

Lindsay: I think we need to give a lot of credit to Oakland mayor, Libby Schaaf, who said, “We are not going to subsidize the stadium.” And that's why the Oakland Raiders ended up having to move. And it's worth noting that Oakland is still paying $83 million on a stadium renovation from 1995. And the mayor just said no more. We're not doing this. We would love to work out a deal so the team can stay here, but we're not going to publicly subsidize it. And I think we should give her a round of applause. [laughs]

Julie: Agreed. Jessica? 

Jessica: Yeah. I think one thing for me when I was looking this up last night and I was Googling stadium funding public stuff, the thing about it for me is that you can find articles on Deadspin trashing the public funding of stadiums, but you can also find them on Reason. I mean, like across the political spectrum, you couldn't get a wider range there. So, it's probably time for people to step back and process how everyone on the political spectrum can be here. And I just want to say one thing, like, even Breitbart gets this! So, there was a newser about how Charles Barkley opposed the move to Vegas because of how the stadium finance deal would harm the poor people of Nevada. This was Charles Barkley who said this, I know. A Breitbart reporter ended the piece with, “Still, the idea that private businesses, especially those run by billionaires, should pay for their own facilities has some merit.”

Julie: Wow. Shireen?

Shireen: Yes. Thanks for that. Breitbart, not a name I thought I'd ever hear on this podcast, but anyway. Just about the criticism of stadiums, we've heard a lot about the stadiums being built and the human rights abuses overseas. So it's really interesting for me to read the criticisms of this, where, from what I understand in my own reading, this is the most expensive stadium in the world, like, beyond…And correct me if I'm wrong on this, but beyond in other places that gets tremendous amounts of scrutiny. So it's really interesting for me to read this with that sort of lens and comparing the criticisms of this and, you know, the racialized ones, the class ones, with other stadiums that mainstream sports media is very happy to jump on, for whatever reason.

Julie: Let’s move on to topic number two. There’s a new coach in the NFL, and you might be surprised at who it is. Brenda, you want to take us through this one? 

Brenda: Thanks Julie. Colette Smith, who's currently a coach and is a former player for the New York Sharks – they play for the Independent Women's Football League – has been named as a coach to work with the New York Jets defensive backs. And she had a great quote this week in the New York Daily News. She says, “This could have happened with any NFL team, but it just so happened that it was with my beloved New York Jets. This is bigger because of that. God forbid it would have been with the Patriots, but I still would have done it.” [laughter] End of quote. So, Smith has a real sense that she's making history here.

I think it's interesting when we look at other cases of women being hired as full-time coaches, and I'm thinking here of the Spurs’ Becky Hammon, who was the first full-time coach in the NBA, hired prior to the 2014 season, that this doesn't seem to be some crazy, traumatic, life-changing event for the players that the media makes it out to be when they get hired. In fact, you know, Becky Hammon has had a pretty seamless transition, it seems, with the players. And just a couple months ago, Adam Silver and Gregg Popovich indicated it was time for a female head coach in the NBA. And it seemed to be that they were pointing to Becky Hammon as maybe taking over that position. So, if you need another reason to love the Spurs and Gregg Popovich, it might be that. But it's exciting about Smith, and I think Shireen has some more to say about this female coach role.

Shireen: Thanks, Brenda. I could talk forever about how much I love Gregg Popovich and how important it is to have women coaching, not just for representation, but...And I absolutely giggled when I read Smith's comment about the Pats. But from what I read, she said this is bigger just because of that. “God forbid it would have been with the Patriots, but I still would have done it.” And that for me was really important, because although she's clearly not a fan of the Pats, she is pointing out that there is still so much work to be done in this. And she is second only to Jen Welter, who has a coaching position in the NFL. So I think this is really important. It's a very big deal, and I wish her all the best.

Julie: I just want to point out how rare it is that you hear the phrase “beloved New York Jets” all together.

Jessica: Yeah, this is amazing. One of the things that I loved when I was reading about Colette Smith is that she's coming from the Independent Women's Football League, and one of the things I love about this is we have this myth, this false narrative that women don't play football, that they don't know how to coach it because they don't ever play it. And that is just not true. I live in Austin, Texas. I think we have six semi-pro women's teams here. I did a piece for Teen Vogue earlier this year where I interviewed Sam Gordon. She's a young teenage phenom football player; she made it big a couple of years ago with her YouTube highlights in peewee football. Her and her dad started an all girls football league in Salt Lake City, Utah, and it just grows exponentially because girls want to play football. There are spaces for that, we just almost never talk about it. So, for Colette Smith to be coming out of a women's football league and that's where she got her chops, like, I think that is exciting. 

Julie: Yeah. And I wanted to point out that my son played on a travel football team a couple of years ago, pretty high level travel football. They were running really complex plays. And one of the best players on their team was a girl who was on the offensive line. So, when I look back and I see these girls playing, I remember always wanting to be a cheerleader. And then I looked back and I'm just sort of like, god, why didn't I want to play football? Like, it looks like so much more fun than just cheering on the sidelines. And, you know, playing intramural powderpuff in high school and college and stuff – I loved football. So I'm glad that there are so many girls out there getting the chance to play. Lindsay? 

Lindsay: Yeah. I just wanted to zoom out a little bit and look at the fact that there's a lack of women coaches across the sports landscape, including in women's sports. There's only one female head coach out of 10 teams in the National Women's Soccer League. That's Laura Harvey with the Seattle Reign. In the WNBA, things are a little bit better. Half of the coaches are women, and that means six women coaches, and three of those are African-American women. So, the WNBA is certainly blazing trails, once again, in this regard.

But you also have tennis, a sport that is known as the most prominent sport for female athletes. And you hardly ever see women coaches – not just for the men. Amélie Mauresmo did step up and coach Andy Murray and they had some success together before that partnership ended last year. But for women too, last year, the year in championships where the top eight women compete, you had zero female coaches, and it's increasingly rare to see any women coaching even women in tennis. And that's a really big problem.

This year, there was a big controversy in the NCAA when Geno Auriemma had said that “just not as many women want to coach.” He's of course the head coach for UConn, the most successful women's basketball team in the NCAA, and one of the most successful sports teams anywhere, period. And I think that's a big misnomer that a lot of people have. The truth is that the people who own these teams and who are making these hiring decisions are still predominantly male, still predominantly are working from the same pipeline. And even we as women are not taught to look up to women as leaders, and aren't going to hire as many women.

So, there's still so many cultural and social and political problems and boundaries that women coaches are facing across the sports landscape. So it's particularly empowering to see this start to change in football, which is known as the most masculine of sports. Of course it started with Jen Welter with the Arizona Cardinals; last year, you had Kathryn Smith hired by the Buffalo Bills on as a position coach, I believe it was special teams quality control coach. And then again this year, to have Colette with the big breakthrough with the Jets. So, that's very promising, and I think will go a long way to changing all of our minds about what women are capable of doing in the coaching sphere.

Julie: Okay. Shireen, we'll give you the last word on this.

Shireen: I just wanted to touch on quickly something that Jess had said about girls wanting to play football and how they actually do play football, we just don't hear about it. I mean, just before we started our podcast, news came out about Becca Longo from Arizona, who is the first female football player – and she's a kicker – to be drafted to a Div II team on a full scholarship. And I mean, this is really important because it's good news, but it gives us an idea that there are girls out there hustling and who love this sport. And I think having women as coaches and having players and the publicity around that rising is really, really important. So, yay for women in American football.

Julie: This week, Jessica got the chance to talk with Katie Barnes, a sportswriter for ESPN.

Jessica: I had a great interview with Katie about LGBT issues and sport, as well as some quick dish on this season of The Bachelorette. I hope y’all enjoy.

Jessica here. I'm excited to welcome Katie Barnes to Burn It All Down. Katie is a pop culture obsessed writer/reporter for espnW, covering various sports, LGBTQ policy and inclusion, as well as TV and film. They are also obsessed with The Bachelorette and are the unofficial Ninja Warrior beat writer. That's a good gig. Thanks for being here, Katie. 

Katie: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. 

Jessica: All right, so let's get into it. Last week, Adam Silver, NBA commissioner, announced the league would play it's 2019 All Star game in Charlotte, North Carolina. This matters because the league had previously moved the game out of the state because of its discriminatory law, which is popularly called HB2, named after what it was when it was a bill. That law restricted public facility use to the gender listed on a person's birth certificate. HB2 was repealed, but can you tell us what happened after HB2 was repealed? 

Katie: Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of people say HB2 is repealed, and the reality is that, yes, the statute went away as far as like HB2 no longer exists. However, what was put in place was that the general assembly is the only public entity allowed to regulate bathrooms. So that means that public schools, the University of North Carolina college system, as well as the North Carolina community college system, are not allowed to pass trans-inclusive bathroom policies at all, unless the general assembly gives their okay – which they probably won't. And then in addition to that, HB142 also places a three-year moratorium on the passage of LGBTQ inclusive local ordinances. So, Charlotte can't pass an LGBTQ inclusive ordinance, nor can Asheville, nor can any other city in the state. So, that's sort of why repeal is a little bit of a misnomer.

Jessica: And so, how does the NBA returning to Charlotte following the so-called repeal of HB2, quote, “send the message that there won't be repercussions for putting anti-LGBTQ actions into law,” which is something that you wrote last week for espnW. How does that work? 

Katie: Yeah, the big thing about North Carolina and what this means in terms of the NBA going back is that, in my personal opinion, it sort of ends this alliance between the sporting community, the business community, and the LGBTQ community. And so, since the religious freedom restoration act passed in Indiana, the sporting community has been increasingly commenting on anti-LGBTQ legislation across the country. And so now that the NBA is going back to North Carolina over a law that most LGBTQ organizations are saying is not good for them, it asks the question of what are they going to actually be able to do in terms of condemning other anti-LGBTQ legislation pending across the country?

And in that article, I specifically pointed to Texas, where there’s quite a battle going on about bathrooms specifically, but LGBTQ rights more broadly than that. And should a measure actually come out of that legislature and become law, in previous years there would be a conversation. It would be reasonable to assume that the NBA would be actively involved in terms of speaking out. And I'm not sure they can do that anymore, especially if whatever law comes out of Texas is less terrible than HB142, because how can they possibly say something about that law when they just signed off tacitly by going back to Charlotte for the All Star game with HB142? Which LGBTQ advocates are pretty much in consensus about being pretty awful for the community.

Jessica: Can you talk about the practice of this law in North Carolina? There's so much theory around like how the law will work, right? And that's really useful for an organization like the NBA. So, the NBA says it will make sure that people visiting Charlotte for the game are safe in the NBA’s facilities and the affiliated hotels. How much power does the NBA actually have on that? And how hollow is that, when you know that all the other places in the city are not by law allowed to prioritize that, right?

Katie: Yeah. I mean, I think the big question is actually going to be about the stadium itself, right? So, Spectrum Arena is actually owned by the city of Charlotte, which somehow has not really been part of this conversation. Like, there isn't a stadium authority. The thing that people don't know about how this is actually going to be put into practice is due to the fact that the city of Charlotte owns Spectrum Arena. And so when we look at what the Hornets are trying to say can happen, what the NBA is trying to say can happen, there's a big legal question mark about how much of that will actually be able to be executed due to the fact that the city of Charlotte is in fact a public entity. They own the arena, which could be subject to this law.

And so there's a giant question about, can the NBA ensure that there are going to be trans inclusive restrooms there? In terms of like binary trans bathroom usage. Nobody really knows the answer to that question. Is it a violation of HB142 to explicitly say that that can happen? Nobody knows the answer to that question. So, I think that is really the legal tension in terms of what this actually looks like in practice.

But then outside of public entities, in general, HB142 can not be executed. Like, you know, when you go to the bathroom at a restaurant, HB142 does not govern that restaurant. However, there is a general sentiment and feeling that by having a law such as HB142 – or HB2, or SB6 in Texas, so on, so forth – anything that explicitly regulated transgender access to bathrooms can create a negative feeling and experience for many trans people, where it gives people the ability to question your gender and what's going on underneath your clothing in a way that had not previously been seen as publicly okay.

Jessica: So, I want to shift…That’s like a perfect transition. Thank you, Katie. I want to talk about the actual impact of this on trans athletes. Like, there's an actual human impact that's happening here. We talked about this in really big ways, and I think it would be useful to talk about a piece that you wrote earlier this month. It’s a really great profile of a former baseball player, a trans man named Lex Clay. So, I just want to start…Who is Clay? How did you meet him? And can you tell us a little bit about his story?

Katie: Yeah. Lex Clay was a softball player at University of Tennessee 10 years ago, and then ended up transferring to University of Notre Dame. What's funny is Lex actually went to high school with me. Yeah, it didn't make it into the piece, but he was a senior when I was a freshman, and he actually came out to my father. And my dad came home and said, hey, do you know what transgender means? And I was like, no. I was like 14. And he's like, oh, well, let me tell you what this means. And Lex is trans, by the way. I was like, oh, thanks dad. That's just like a little personal nugget about that story.

But, you know, Lex was a real elite softball player. He set the home run record in Indiana. He grew up in rural Indiana, went to school at Culver Academies where I went to school, and then went on to play softball at the collegiate level; and had come out to a few people in high school, but knew he was trans heading into his college experience, identified that way to a few people. And the story is just really about taking a moment, which was his home run in game one of the 2007 women's college world series, and unpacking what was actually going on at that time, I would say, in a time where we weren't talking about transgender people in the way that we are now.

And that didn't mean that trans people didn't exist, which was why I really wanted to tell his story, because I think that as we are talking about trans people more and more now, there's sort of this idea that somehow it's like trendy or this is a new thing. It's not, you know? [laughs] Trans people have been out here for a long time And it wasn't just Caitlyn Jenner, right? There are a lot of people who have been trans who have been playing sports. And these laws and proposals and policies at whatever level they're enacting on do affect real people. And so I sort of wanted to highlight that with a story that had not been told before.

Jessica: Yeah. It's a really beautiful story. And I was struck by the fact that it is a decade, right? Since that home run. I think it's such an interesting thing, because you do address this directly in the piece, right? We're at a different place a decade later. You and I are having this conversation. Conservative legislatures are nervous about trans athletes. We actually had a Texas, I want to say a state Senator, try to pass a bill that would effectively ban trans student athletes. Luckily it died in committee. We're at a different place than we were a decade ago, in ways that are good. But also now we see this backlash to this. How do you, when you think about writing Clay's story from 2007 to 2017, obviously there's a story of progression here, but it's not just that, right? How do you think about this when you think about where trans athletes are today in this society? 

Katie: The word precarious comes to mind, in terms of trans athletes. And so much of it depends on where you live, like just in general, where you were born. Where your parents decided to live can drastically affect your access to sport. So, a state like Texas, which passed a policy in February of 2016, that limits…It basically requires athletes to play on the team corresponding with their birth certificate. That piece of policy is not the same in a state like Connecticut, for example, which does not require any level of hormone therapy or surgery or birth certificate. You could play with the team that you identify on.

And that's actually a much more common practice. We see that in about half the states. And then about 10 states have no policy, and then about 10 states have a real restrictive policy. And so trying to navigate that as trans athletes is really challenging, but also we see locker rooms get sort of capped on to the of conversation, which has really been what's been happening in Texas, for example, and also in the failed bill in South Dakota a year or so ago. where we saw people wanted to govern multiple occupancy bathrooms and regulate access to those spaces.

But then the logic is, well, if we're regulating that, we also should regulate the locker room. And so those things can have a really negative impact on a trans athlete's experience. And in fact, seeing many out trans athletes…I think that part of that is because it's so hard to persist in the sporting environment that is not explicitly and is oftentimes exclusive, whether implicitly or explicitly to athletes who are trying to have the experiences that we in the sports world have said are integral for character development for so long.

Jessica: Thank you, Katie. So, I'm going to just move this conversation way over. So before we go, let's talk about what's on everyone's mind since I did your intro. Katie, what are you looking forward to on this season of The Bachelorette?

Katie: I’m really stoked. You know, people say The Bachelorette is trash, and like, we can just all agree it's not prestige TV. However, you know, I think it's really important to acknowledge that at least in this season, seeing a Black woman be so desired is doing some really important cultural work and normalizing Black women as beautiful, and also as desirable, in a society where that is literally almost never the case. And it's going to be great. Interracial relationships…I’m biracial. I'm super excited about them. I'm also excited to see some Black love. I'm excited to see all of it, and I think it's going to be great, and Rachel is probably the best bachelorette that ever happened.

Jessica: Awesome. Well, thank you, Katie Barnes from espnW, for being here today on Burn It All Down.

Katie: Thanks for having me, Jessica. Really appreciate it.

Julie: Now it's time for everyone's favorite segment that we like to call the burn pile, where we pile up all the things we've hated this week in sports and set them aflame. I'll go first. This week, after a really uncomfortable exchange between LaVar Ball, who’s the father of top NBA prospect Lonzo Ball, and Fox Sports 1’s Kristine Leahy last week, where LaVar famously told Kristine to “stay in your lane” while arguing about his Big Baller Brand line of shoes and sportswear. Word came this week that Ball is now selling shirts that say stay in your lane on his Big Baller Brand website.

I have complicated feelings on the exchange between the two, LaVar and Kristine, because it turns out their beef had roots in her questioning his relationship with his sons, which I think is sort of out of line for a sports reporter. Don’t question people's parenting skills. No one's being abused. No one's been neglected. I really thought she stepped over the line in doing that, and I understand why he was upset. But the “stay in your lane” moment was a really bad look for LaVar in a long line of bad looks in his media appearances lately. Arguably it reeked of misogyny.

For him not to understand why it looks so bad in that moment and then to exploit that moment for profit is pretty obnoxious to me, especially after he said he was not going to sell to women on his website because Big Baller Brand, quote, “is not a woman's brand,” which is fine. It's his stuff. He can sell it to whoever he wants. But now selling a shirt that is a moment when he sort of smacked down a woman in public in a way that so many of us typically get smacked down, being told to stay in our lane, and for him to be using that for financial gain, to me, it was really obnoxious. So, LaVar Ball, your stay in your lane t-shirt is going on the burn pile. Burn it.

Shireen: Burn.

Julie: More on the beef between Leahy and Ball – here’s Shireen. 

Shireen: I'm expanding this burn pile and sort of emanating from Julie's, and my burn pile and something that will forever be in it is white feminism. So, I have mixed feelings as well about the exchange between LaVar Ball and Kristine Leahy. And although I was super offended by a lot of the stuff and the sexist commentary that he was making, I was really, really, really bothered by Kristine Leahy's own gaslighting of him. And the day before, she had gone on air and completely bashed his parenting and insulted him in terms of the family context, where I don't think that's her place. Now, that being said, during their interview, I was also really perturbed by the way she kept saying, “Are you threatening me? Are you threatening me?” 

And I found that to be really offensive because she's clearly not understanding the nuance and the race relations and dynamics there. And he was physically…He had his back to her. And to be very honest with you, if the white woman went on air and went at my parenting, my back would be turned to her as well. I'm not providing excuses for what he's done, because I think that man is super problematic in many ways, but I'm not here for Leahy's white feminism. I'm not here for her saying that she's representing all women and he's a misogynist for this, because she certainly does not get a pass from me and she doesn't have my support on this issue. 

Julie: Burn it.

Shireen: Torched it. 

Julie: Okay, Lindsay, you're up next.

Lindsay: I'd like to burn the entire English soccer establishment. [laughs] So, the burn pile is very big right now. Watch out for those flames. This week, HBO Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel…Or, excuse me, last week, when you guys are listening to this, did an update on the child sex abuse scandal that…We’ve had this discussion here before, that scandal is not the right word, but it is the word I have to use right now. So, the British soccer sex abuse scandal that is now up to 560 alleged victims, focused on 252 suspects, touching 311 clubs, spanning the amateur and professional level. The majority of the victims were young men, or young boys, excuse me. A lot of this abuse took place in the 70s, 80s, 90s and early 00s.

A lot of this abuse was by scouts or assistant coaches or programs that were in development leagues for the bigger programs such as Chelsea. And this just was ongoing. And the amount of times that this was reported or whispered about, that nobody did anything, nobody in any of these teams did anything up until just this last decade, and really just this last six months since Andy Woodward came forward and told his story on BBC. But 560 just being the ones we know about right now is a staggering number. It's something we should all be thinking about. It's something we should all figure out. How do we protect kids in sports who are being taken advantage of because of their talent and their ambition and their desire?

We fetishize hard work at such a young age and dedication, and make these children believe that they have to sacrifice everything. And oftentimes it leads to disastrous situations where they're being taken advantage of and exploited, all in the name of maybe one day making it famous. And people overlook so much when fame and success and winning are on the line. And I just…I hope that it was over right now. I'm sad that we don't see many prominent soccer stars today talking about it, nor do we see these clubs coming out and talking about it. It's just overall a continued veil of silence. And I think we should just all remember that the number 560 is surely just the tip of the iceberg. So, take a seat, British soccer establishment.

Julie: Put it on the pile. Brenda, you're up.

Brenda: Yes. I would like to throw on the burn pile, though totally metaphorically, Floyd Mayweather's new Las Vegas strip club called Girl Collection. Obviously I would never want those women workers to suffer a fire. [Julie laughs] So, I'm just going to reiterate that this is metaphorical, but it is in my opinion a California wildfire-sized burn pile. The Girl Collection, of course it's important to remember that Mayweather pled guilty to domestic violence, that this is someone who we know has abused his partners repeatedly. And so in that context, him opening the strip club is really just one more step in his misogyny. And what he's done by calling it Girl Collection is really dangerous. We know when you refer to women, you have to be 21 to work in that strip club. And you refer to them as girls, it's dangerous for women and girls. He's objectified women by calling them collectible.

He puts in his ad campaign, which he puts on his Instagram and his Twitter and everything else, women who are naked with dollar signs on their nipples. Again, with a further objectification of women. And he then celebrates things like Cinco de Mayo by featuring Mexican strippers. So, it's collectible in the sense that he feels that the diversity of women, which he celebrates as an African-American man, is present in his choice of strippers. And so I would just like to say all solidarity to the women that have to work for him, but burn it down. 

Julie: Yeah, we've got an eternal burn pile going for Baylor and for FIFA, and Floyd Mayweather is real close to getting his own eternal flame on the burn pile.

Brenda: Great. And people like Stephen Smith who continue to find excuses for him can go right on there as well.

Julie: Agreed. Okay. Jessica, final burn of the week?

Jessica: All right. Y’all, I'm going to do it. I'm going to throw LeBron hate onto the burn pile. Do not @ me. This week, LeBron passed Michael Jordan's record of most points in the NBA playoffs that Jordan set 20 years ago. James is now the number one scorer in NBA playoffs history. He is so good. There is a Wikipedia page titled “List of career achievements by LeBron James.” It's really long. It has 117 references and includes things like, “First place all time for three point field goals attempted in the NBA finals with 167,” and “Only player in NBA history to be in the top five all time in career playoff points, assists and steals.” So there's that part of James, right? He's a phenomenal basketball player. He's easily one of the best ever. And he will forever be in the conversation about who is the best ever.

But then there's the other thing. I also just love him for how he gives back. So for example, last month, it was announced that he's teaming up with Akron, Ohio's public schools to open the ‘I Promise School’ dedicated to aiding at-risk children in Akron. According to the NBA's press release about this new school, “It's the latest initiative by the Cleveland Cavaliers superstar whose programs have supported 1,100 kids over the past six years.” And so I have had it. I've had it with the LeBron James hate. How can you hate this man? So I'm burning it. I'm burning it. I’m burning the hate. 

Julie: I just want to speak up for Chicago Bulls fans who hate LeBron for legitimate basketball reasons, namely being that we can't beat him. After all that burning, it's time to celebrate some remarkable women this week with our badass woman of the week segment. Lindsay, got someone for us this week?

Lindsay: You guys, I am so happy to be presenting this segment this week. You have no idea. Let me take you back to December 20th, 2016, when two-time Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova, was attacked in her Czech Republic home. An unknown assailant randomly entered her home under the guise of checking a utility meter. They entered into a struggle in the bathroom. He ended up placing a knife against her throat, and she ended up sustaining deep cuts to her fingers and deep lacerations in her left hand. Kvitova is, as I mentioned, a two-time Wimbledon champion who was still in very much the prime part of her career. She is left-handed.

While it was a miracle that she survived, and we were very happy that she is still with us, there were doubts as to whether she would ever be able to play tennis again, because she couldn't even feel her hand for months. Well, just this morning – we are recording this on Sunday – she opened up the French Open. She won. She was the very first winner at the French Open. She defeated American Julia Boserup 6-3, 6-2. It was amazing that she even played. Then the fact that she won…There were many tears.

She didn't know she was going to play even up til a couple of weeks ago. She stayed on the entry list just as kind of a hope that maybe she could, to keep her options open. And here she is, winning, the very first winner, and winner in many more ways than one. If you're a tennis fan, you know Petra Kvitova for many reasons, not just her forehand, but her personality. There is not a player in the women's tour, there there's not a media member who does not adore her. She is beloved, and this is in my opinion one of the best sports stories, probably of the year. I just want to have this on record: you are a badass, Petra Kvitova.

Julie: Okay. Jessica?

Jessica: So, I have an honorable mention this week, and she's actually a badass girl of the week. Tamari Davis is a 14 year old eighth grader from Gainesville, Florida. Last week, she set an age group world record at the Prefontaine Classic track competition in Eugene, Oregon. She ran the 200 meters in 23.21 seconds. The previous world record in this age group was set back in 1999. The grown-ass women's world record in the 200 meter was set by the legendary Flo Jo, Florence Griffith Joyner, at the 1988 Summer Olympics. She ran a 21.34. So well done, Tamari. 

Julie: All right, Shireen, you’ve got the last one this week.

Shireen: Yes. Thank you. I wanted to give this honorable mention as more of a sign of support and solidarity for Emma Hayes, who is the Chelsea women's football team manager. And she came out very publicly and told BBC's Radio 4's Today program that she had a lot of issues with the FA, the governing body of British football, that she was really dissatisfied with the way that they kept giving second hand refs, like unqualified, not fully competent refs, to the women's game. Now, this is a woman who is a league winning…She is one of the few female managers, coaches in women's professional football in Europe. And for her to do this was incredibly brave and really important to say don't give our women and the women's game, you know, don't think of us, as she put it, an afterthought. Don't give us officials that aren't qualified to the highest level of the game. And I offer full support and solidarity on that, and I hope that they take her really seriously, because those women hustle and they work hard. And I really, really hope that the FA can do better. 

Julie: Badass. Finally, we have our first ever segment of listener mail this week. Our first ever listener mail comes to us from Beverly, who starts out saying all kinds of nice things about the podcast, but then rightly calls me out on this. She says,

I did want to comment on something you said that was so minor I can't believe I'm even saying anything, except it's been bugging me. I'm from Boston, and I was in the stands the night Adam Jones was subjected to racist taunts. I'm not going to make excuses for these douchebags because there's no excuse, but Adam Jones’ treatment since then has been appalling. But you mentioned that Chris Sale threw at Manny Machado the next night because the crowd gave Jones a standing ovation.

Now, I know Sale is a notorious headcase, and while I love his strikeouts I view it with a certain amount of dread. But he did not throw it Manny because of the standing O. There were two things going on back at least two weeks at a game in Baltimore. Machado slid into second and it was a high slide and he injured Dustin Pedroia in the process. Since that game, there were various attempts at retaliation, and the managers and umpires lost control of it.

This stupid thing went on way too long. I think Sale was trying to get in on it. The incident with Adam Jones was a separate issue. I know this seems trivial, but I don't believe that more people need to get painted with the same brush. And if I am not the only person to point this out, I'm sorry for piling on. I'm so excited to listen to your podcast.

From, Beverly.

Beverly, you're exactly right. I misspoke, and for that I apologize. The Chris Sale thing with Manny Machado was separate from the Adams Jones incident. And I think I kind of rolled it all into one ball just because it all happened around the same time. But you're exactly right. Those were two separate incidents.

All right, that's it for this week's episode of Burn It All Down. Burn It All Down is produced by Brian Dusek and lives on SoundCloud, but can also be heard on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and TuneIn. We always appreciate your reviews and feedback. So, feel free to subscribe, rate, and tell us what you liked or didn't like about the show. We hope you'll follow us on Twitter @burnitdownpod and on Facebook at Burn It All Down. And big news: we now have a website, so check it out! Head on over to burnitalldown.pod.com. That's where you'll find all our show notes and links to all the topics we discussed. And of course you can email us at burnitalldownpod@gmail.com, and be on the lookout for our GoFundMe when that is up and running, all the details will be on our website. That's it for us this week. For Lindsay Gibbs, Jessica Luther, and Shireen Ahmed, I'm Julie DiCaro. We'll see you next week.