Michelle Beadle, one of the co-hosts of “Get Up,” ESPN’s morning show, said that she stopped watching pro and college football, even though she is a host of the most powerful sports outlet in the world. Beadle had some interesting comments about football on Thursday. On the show, she went in hard on Urban Meyer and his punishment, but also talked about how scandals like that affect her football fandom.
After a two-week investigation, an Ohio State committee found that Meyer mishandled domestic assault allegations made against former Buckeyes assistant coach Zach Smith and misrepresented what he knew about the situation in a public statement in July.
Meyer was suspended without pay and banned from interacting with the football team through Sept. 2. He can rejoin the team at that point, but he will not be able to coach in games against Oregon State, Rutgers and No. 16 TCU.
Meyer was present at the announcement and unenthusiastically read a written statement and showed no indications of being apologetic for his actions
Beadle’s reasoning, in light of the Urban Meyer decision and press conference, was passionate and well-reasoned; she called Meyer a “liar,” and said football has “marginalized women.”
“In 11 hours, you couldn’t even at least get up there and pretend to be at least a little sorry” said Beadle in this mornings Discussion of the issue on her show ‘Get Up’.
Beadle went on to talk about her current relationship with football. You can see the entire clip on The Big Lead, but here’s a transcript of what she said:
“There’s a reason why this will be the second season I don’t watch NFL and I don’t spend my Saturdays watching college football either. I believe that the sport of football has set itself up to be in a position where it shows itself in the bigger picture to not really care about women — they don’t really care about people of color, but we won’t get into that for NFL either — but as a woman I feel like a person who has been marginalized.”
“And every single one of these stories that comes out, every single time, pushes me further and further away. I realize they don’t care, but for me it’s opened up my weekends. I appreciate you for giving that to me. I don’t care anymore. I’ve lost the ability to be surprised.”
“I’m just ready for NBA to kick off,” Beadle said.
