More than just NFL wives: How do we get more girls involved in the sports industry?

I’ve been a Duke fan for just about as long as I can remember. On Saturdays in the winter, my mom and I camp out in front of the TV and watch Blue Devils basketball, only getting up during the commercial breaks. March is a stressful time in our house.

My mom and I on our way to a Duke football game. That’s a Grayson Allen jersey by the way.

I’ve always been drawn to sports, but it wasn’t until high school that I realized the majority of the big sports fans I grew up with were women. My dad was an athlete growing up, but was always pretty uninterested in college and pro sports.

My mom, on the other hand, would go to all of our sporting events, to be a supportive mother, of course, but also just because she loved them. Her mother is an opinionated, passionate sports lover, too.

I never thought this was much of an anomaly until I started researching careers in sports for myself. I was aware that going into sports journalism and media would be a male-dominated field. I just never realized how male-dominated.

It felt like every woman I saw in sports media was either a social media or PR manager. Don’t get me wrong, those are awesome careers. But I wanted to see girls talking about sports like I saw guys doing it.

So often I hear people list things like the WNBA and Title IX to justify the imbalance of women in sports, claiming that there are a lot of opportunities for us. True, but what about the girls that want to work in the NFL? And I don’t mean passing out water bottles or organizing uniforms. The women that desire to be on the sideline, calling plays and studying formations.

Little me was an absolute demon at soccer…once I got over the crying-on-the-field phase and learned that we got snacks after the game.

Even typing that felt silly. In my 17 years of life, I have never seen a girl holding one of those play cards with pictures on it (There has got to be a better way to do that by the way. Michigan made it look so easy).

I’m tired of women being restricted to just women’s sports. There are plenty of male head women’s basketball coaches at the NCAA level. In fact, just last year a majority of women’s basketball programs at the college level were coached by men. I’ll let you guess how many collegiate men’s teams are coached by women! Hint: It’s between zero… and also zero. It’s zero.

Look. I’m not saying we haven’t made progress. There has been an incredible amount of improvement for female athletes in just my lifetime. Just recently, the NCAA apologized for providing facilities far inferior than the men’s for the 2021 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. But we need to address the root of the problem, before it becomes a collegiate-level issue. And I can’t stand it when people present an issue and don’t include a solution. So here are a few.

Pick me, chose me, love me, blah blah

Firstly (and I really want to emphasize this one), liking sports does not make you a “pick me girl.” You can enjoy watching sports, reading about them, stalking teams on instagram, whatever it is. It does not automatically mean you think you’re one of the boys. Literally yuck. The term “pick me girl” discourages girls from wanting to be involved in the world of sports. It makes them feel like they want attention for participating in things that are traditionally for guys. Yuck!

When a girl is talking about sports with a group of guys, so many people assume that she doesn’t want to be like other girls. Even girls think that! That is stupid. Pardon my bluntness, but seriously. If change is going to happen for the sports industry, we should be encouraging girls to talk about sports and rep their teams like boys do. And if sports aren’t your thing, that is totally okay. But we can’t make the girls who love sports feel like they’re thirsty for attention whenever they talk about the game.

Nobody was repping their team like I was. The layers? Mastered. The matching color scheme? Light work.

Argue! It’s fun.

Secondly, sports are supposed to be fun. Half of them are just a bunch of sweaty people running around fighting over a ball. It doesn’t have to be so serious!

As you can see, I took my early athletic career very seriously.

Everybody has the teams they love and the games they can’t miss. And everyone is going to have something different to say. That is what is so awesome about sports. You won’t find two fans that agree on completely everything.

Rivalries and arguments are what make sports so fun. Don’t be afraid to argue. I love arguing about sports. Sometimes I tell people Grayson Allen is the greatest NBA player of all time and watch them internally combust as they try to process that statement. I know this isn’t true, but it’s taught me a lot about the differing opinions and their supporting arguments as to who the GOAT really is. I could literally know nothing about the teams, and still form an opinion on it. It does not have to be that deep.

As you can see, I was less focused on actually playing soccer and more interested in finding sticks and flowers on the ground.

Figure out who it is you care about. Fight for your team like it’s your dying duty. You don’t have to know everything about everything to participate in sports conversations. As long as you know where you stand.

In simpler terms, insert yourself in the conversation. If it’s something you’re interested in, talk about it! I have plenty of conversations with guys about sports. I promise they don’t know everything. I’ve learned so much about teams I don’t follow from friends that root for them.

I don’t know if I knew how to read here, but I sure knew how to spell Duke. And apparently that was hilarious.

Sports are one of the few things you can argue about for AGES and still never come to a conclusion. That is most of the appeal to be honest.

As girls, we subconsciously want to avoid conflict and not have differing opinions. Our society discourages women from going against the grain by telling them they’re “too loud” or “too much.” Things like this are often minor and barely noticeable to us, but they still exist.

Be loud. Be heard. There is a place for you in the sports world. You just might have to make it yourself.