For once, the New York Jets lived up to the hype.  That is, the hype of falling into stereotypical jock behavior.

Reports have swarmed the tabloids regarding the Jets’ mistreatment of TV Azteca reporter Inez Sainz last weekend, when she was sent on assignment to interview the team’s quarterback, Mark Sanchez.  The reporter tweeted that she felt uncomfortable and tried to keep her eyes to herself during her visit in the football team’s locker room in an effort to secure her meeting with the former USC star.

First of, while investigations are still ongoing, you can bet that the Jets players are more than guilty of their share of wrongdoing.  If the clubhouse attitudes and personas displayed on “Hard Koncks” are any indication, one can only imagine the nudges and winks and whistles that Sainz may have heard in New York’s locker room.

The outcome of the situation has people debating whether women have equal rights in such environments.  Since the arena of professional athletics is male dominated, many females in the sports media industry are outraged at the notion that having access to locker rooms should be off-limits to them.  All people have a general understanding of what’s acceptable and what’s not, and athletes are no exception.  But with the added element of varying levels of skin being revealed, proper judgement sometimes gets thrown out the window.

From that perspective, is it professional to get any athlete’s opinions while they are partially dressed?  How professional of a working environment is that?  Like it or not, the comments that Clinton Portis madewere as real as it gets.  There was absolutely no need for him to be chastised for being open enough to share what everybody seems to be scared to.  The truth is that there are surely some very tempting scenarios that these athletes – and reporters – subjects themselves to because of the competitive nature of the industry, and the desire to always get the inside scoop.

Now the NFL is going to spend lots of money coordinating a workplace sensitivity training which, in the end, will probably not do much to curb the attitudes – and consequently, the behaviors – of the possible offenders.

If the Jets had seen Sainz in a bathing suit, how much worse would they have behaved?

What would be more prudent is to apply common sense to this situation.

When I’m out in public, at my workplace for example, I don’t expect to see women in the men’s bathroom.  And who knows?  One day, I could make a groundbreaking discovery for resource management in the contact center industry.  Would I welcome a female CNN reporter to talk with me while I am washing up in my company restroom?  Would my wife welcome that?

Conversely, women won’t have to worry about seeing me in their restrooms.  It’s a lovely exchange that has been going on for centuries now which is not subject to revision in the general portions of society.  But apparently, the theory has been revised for the sporting world.

If the problem here is that females in this industry feel that males have the upper hand, then there can be a control placed on the situation.  In all reality, it’s hard to believe that athletes would want to be interviewed at all when they aren’t fully clothed, whether it be by members of the opposite sex or even members of the same sex.  So, perhaps there could be an place preserved for the media members outside of the locker room area. 

Implement something of this sort, including a no tolerance rule for offenders and a potential element of uncomfortability will be removed. 

And in today’s world, it wouldn’t get any more equal than that.

T Lamont is the owner, administrator and author of all content for Ball or Nuthin\'. Feel free to contact T Lamont with a question or comment at ballornuthin@gmail.com.  All created Ball or Nuthin' content is the sole property of T Lamont. Read more from this author