Why are we not watching or

talking about women’s sports?

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Serena Williams. That is the only women’s athlete a lot of American people could name. 

Tell me why.

The WNBA, women’s tennis, women’s soccer, the LPGA, volleyball, and some softball. Those sports are where you see women showcase their talents professionally. The issue is that none of those sports have much popularity. Not enough that is.

Women’s sports don’t get enough attention because the sport is “too slow”, they “aren’t as talented”, they aren’t “fast enough”, they aren’t “strong enough”, and their games “aren’t as exciting”. 

There is your issue. The games aren’t as exciting. They aren’t as exciting as what? What are we comparing women’s sports to? 

Men’s sports. There is another issue. Why are we comparing women’s sports to men’s sports. If they were meant to be compared we would have co-ed professional sports. Women’s sports are exciting. 

Those women are great athletes just like all of your favorite men’s athletes. Lisa Leslie is a name that I recall very well from my childhood days. Leslie will go down as one of the greatest WNBA players ever. But I bet less people know who Lisa Leslie is than those who could tell you who J.J. Reddick is. Don’t get me wrong J.J. Reddick is a good basketball player and is a great shooter, but he isn’t even close to being one of the greatest to play his game, in fact, he hasn’t ever even been the best on his team. While Lisa Leslie will go down as a WNBA all-time great. Lisa Leslie in her prime would beat J.J. Reddick in a one-on-one game. Guaranteed. 

What about softball? There is a league called National Pro Fastpitch. NPF has a whole five teams in the league. Nothing. Yet we have the MLB. With 30 teams, and a 162 game season. But yet we don’t have anything to let women showcase their talent in the sport closely related to baseball. I would be willing to bet a lot of money that no one who reads this column has heard of NPF. 

Tell me why. Why don’t we see a more popular and thriving professional softball league? I love watching my Sooners in college softball. Those ladies are so impressive and are so fun to watch. Most men cannot hit a 70 mph softball pitch from the shorter distance between the mound and plate. If you don’t believe me, look up videos of Jennie Finch striking out MLB greats like Albert Pujols. Finch was an outstanding pitcher at the University of Texas. We didn’t get to see her pitch in multiple games for 20 seasons like we do multiple great MLB pitchers. Tell me why.  

There is no one better at that sport than the women who are playing it at a collegiate level. Ultimately, they are playing for no reason. They don’t get to go on and get paid. The NPF doesn’t pay their athletes, their isn’t enough popularity or income for the league to pay their athletes. So why would you graduate from college and go on to play that while having to work a full-time job on top of it. 

There is women’s soccer. But again, the National Women’s Soccer League is a successor to two leagues prior to it that failed. This leagues has just nine teams throughout the U.S. While men’s has Major League Soccer with 23 teams, and the United Soccer League with 33 teams. Again, the men’s side is much more prevalent. Granted, the women also have a very talented and popular U.S. soccer team that competes nationally. The sad thing is that they might be one of the most underrated teams of U.S. history. 

What about volleyball. This one interests me. They have attempted to have many different leagues and again, they failed. But what interests me is that they’ve also tried to have men’s leagues in a sport that in my opinion is dominated by women. You see volleyball in the Olympics but again, there are both men and women’s volleyball. Every sport where you see women playing, there are men playing it too. But women don’t play football. 

The only league ever was the Women’s Professional Football League. It’s largest size was 11 teams. But it didn’t continue because many women reported they weren’t being given their salaries. As well as some instability with financial backers. Why is there not a women’s football league? I know plenty of women who love football and love to toss the football around, and I know there are plenty more. My girlfriend would be one of those. I’d pay to watch her go throw touchdown bombs to other women. What doesn’t sound good about watching skilled women make big plays on the football field? 

Answer me this, if I have a daughter and she loves sports, what am I supposed to show her to give her inspiration to be a great athlete one day? Sure she may grow up loving Steph Curry, or some future NBA star, but that’s not what I would want from her. I would want my daughter to grow up wanting to aspire to be a woman athlete since she would be playing women’s sports. I want her to aspire to be like Skylar Diggins. How is she supposed to do that if we don’t put women’s sports on tv, or show highlights on social media? 

Let’s get more young girls involved in sports. Let’s give them the same opportunity to dream big in sports as what boys have always had. 

Tell me why we talk about the Tiger’s, the Lebron’s, the Trout’s, and the Brady’s, but not the Diana Taurasi’s, Diggins’, Leslie’s, Finch’s, Misty May Treanor’s, Michelle Wie’s, and the Mia Hamm’s? Some of the worlds most talented athletes haven’t been getting recognition since the beginning of time. Let’s start giving them the respect they deserve. 

Women are great athletes too.