As more than two dozen media, including E! Entertainment network, watched her every move, the 28-year-old [Lauren] Silberman was examined off to the side of the practice field. About 30 minutes later, while 36 other kickers continued their workouts, she called the scene 'surreal' and thanked the NFL for 'this tremendous opportunity.'
March 3, 2013
"Woman leaves in tears after getting injured on just her second kick..."
"... during try out to become the first female in pro-football."
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48 comments:
Mason Crosby just sighed in relief.
Glorious.
There's no crying in football!
That was quick.
My older sister's first husband was Jack "Hacksaw" Reynolds' (middle linebacker on 49ers first Super Bowl team) roommate in college. After Hacksaw's first year in the pros, he came by the house.
He was a heavily muscled, hyper guy, almost scary just talking to him. He told us when he knew he had made the team. The other team was attempting a field goal, Hacksaw broke thru, blocked the field goal and broke the kicker's ankle in the process. Shaking his fist, with a smile and excitement on his face and not a hint of regret for breaking the kicker's ankle, Hacksaw said, "I knew I'd made the team!!!"
A very rough game. Don't kid yourself that it's anything but.
CEO-MMP is right. This is stupid. If she can play with the big men, great. I can't, and I have a Y chromosome.
Finally, this farce makes sense. The relevant and revelatory tidbit from ESPN:
Silberman doesn't have the kind of athletic experience that usually precedes a tryout like this.
Still, she paid the $275 fee to register and NFL director of regional combines Stephen Austin said applicants weren't assessed before any of the 10 regional combines.
"We don't have time for that," Austin said.
Now I get it. Just an attention-ho on a lark.
Wait till she tries out for the infantry.
I'm sure that 13 yard kick put a sizable crack in the glass end zone.
It's actually a bargain, if you can get an identity-politics obsessed media to play up your stupid waste of time.
For $275, be the official First Over-50 Nearsighted Ph.D to try out for the NFL! How courageous and inspiring! Historic!
I'm happy she's out, this'll be lowering the standards like women in combat all over again. Football's changing enough.
Lots of free publicity for her. So objective accomplished.
Its idiotic to think any woman can seriously compete in MLB, the PGA, NFL, or the NBA - but there are always enough dopey white Knights and deluded feminists to keep these PR ploys going.
Football's teariest exit since Jay Cutler in 2011.
Football's teariest exit since Jay Cutler in 2011.
Brett Favre did his part.
Sorry gang but football, American Pro Football that is, is a mean aggressive game with very very serious people trying to WIN.
Don't you remember what Guy Lombard said? "Winning isn't everything, it's the ONLY THING."
Now most women are no where near the size and strength of big men. And if they play in NFL, were winning gets the men a big big bonus paycheck, they will find out there is no, "I'm sorry Mame but I have to tackle you."
They play for keeps in the NFL. I, being 5ft 8, would have died out there and they would not have shed a tear.
So the lady is lucky she didn't make the grade to kick the ball. I'm sure she did get injured practicing, it does happen, but she is lucky she can walk off the field.
"Guy Lombard" stole that quote from Vince Lombardi...
...who stole it from Henry Russell Sanders, the coach of the UCLA Bruins.
Really pathetic. Lots of girls can kick further than that.
I heard she broke her cooter bone.
The injury occurred earlier in the week, not on the second kick - who writes these headlines?
Even the article says it was the second kick. Yes, she tweaked it earlier in the week, but the headline isn't wrong.
She's reasonably cute, especially against a backdrop of NFL wannabes. She'll probably parlay this into something. She got more than $250 worth of fame out of the tryout.
She should hire Gloria Allred and claim sex discrimination for getting cut.
Sandra Fluke looked on in anger.
After the 13-yard kick, my alma mater, UC Berkeley, offered her a full football scholarship and a pretty well endowed chair.
Sandra Fluke looked on in anger.
After the 13-yard kick, my alma mater, UC Berkeley, offered her a full football scholarship and a pretty well endowed chair.
Good thing she didn't see the spider!
Dignity has become a quaint anachronism
Not a great start... consider Rosa Parks bowing out with a hamstring...
What?
Over the top?
'I didn't think about my gender when I registered,' Silberman, 28, told USA Today. 'I just wanted to go out and compete with the best.'
'I am glad that is has focused attention on increasing opportunities for women and am so proud to be able to kick through this open door!'
The doublethink is strong...
I didn't think about my gender when I registered,'
Not only do I not believe that, and not only do I think this is bullshit, I know that it is a lie. Of course it is. How could it be otherwise? Seriously. Be honest.
I can understand that someone can perform poorly because of an injury. I can understand that this can happen to even the best of players.
But I still laugh at this foolish girl who cries, like a girl, while deigning to think she can play a sport with the biggest and most powerful men on the planet.
She couldn't kick off past 20 yards. Any bets on her ability to participate in a typical combat operation?
My dog could kick 20 yards and so could every girl on any soccer team I ever saw. She must have choked when she saw the level of competition, is all I can think.
dc: She should hire Gloria Allred and claim sex discrimination for getting cut.
Man, don't give her any ideas. (Of course Allred is probably on the phone to her already.)
She heard some of the men have difficulty kicking 50 yard field goals. Her math skills were rather weak, but she remembered hearing that zero means nothing. Therefore she figured 5 yards and 50 yards were the same distance.
I expect a few "It was supposed to be our turn, dammit!" columns from feminist writers within the next few days.
The difference between this farce and the farce when they send the first unqualified women out as infantry is that men will die and the mission will fail.
She looks like a combination of Terri Garr and Chrissie Hynde, is all I care.
AlanKH said...
I expect a few "It was supposed to be our turn, dammit!" columns from feminist writers within the next few days.
No chance, such thoughts admit this stunt didn't advance society. I expect columns explaining how the event proves sexism is still a major force in society.
She seemed ill-prepared, but she's dreamer and there's something in that that I can admire.
The universe did this woman a huge GIANT favor. It saved her life. She may not know it yet, but it did.
I thought Aaron Rodgers was the first woman to play in the NFL?
"Woman leaves in tears after getting injured on just her second kick..."
Yeah, it happens. It's just bad luck.
Now, while I'm gender neutral about standards - if a person can meet requirements, that's all that matters to me - we have to accept that sometimes the requirements are such that there will be a gender skew in numbers, and that sometimes that'll be a severe one. In those cases, that'll have nothing to do with sexism and everything to do with the requirements for the position.
People talk about women being able to be football kickers, but there's more to the position than just kicking. Take as an example the Indianapolis Colts kicker Pat Macafee: He led their special teams in 2011 in kick off tackles. Granted, it's because the rest of the special teams players stunk, but still, the point is that a kicker cannot be restricted to just kicking. If they're expected to kick off, they'd damn well better be able to tackle. If they can't, they're a liability, end of story.
So the operative question would have been: Can a given kicker tackle? If yes, then good, here's the opportunity to perform. If not, then sorry, thanks for trying.
Will that disproportionately exclude women? Almost certainly. There's both a strength and athleticism requirement that must be met. Does that mean there will never be a woman who'll ever meet the requirements? Most probably not, but again, in the end, it's the requirements that matter, not who meets them. So in the end, does that mean that the requirements are discrimanatory? I would argue no, not in the sense that they're meant deliberately to target and exclude for a person's gender and no other reason beyond that. Rather, they're meant to set a performance bar for entry, nothing more, and the bar is so high it naturally excludes a LOT of people. So really, the requisites themselves are gender neutral, even though everything from the societal attitudes on down are not. So as long as the standards are fair, the opportunity is there, and those standards are open and honest, it doesn't matter to me what the gender skew is, even if it's 100% to one end. It only matters that the standards are honestly formed (in the case of football, they're about being able to kick, tackle, read the field, etc.) and enforced.
Yeah, way to break those barriers! Truly historic. I put her right up there with Annika Sorenstrom, trailblazer-wise. If this is all it takes, I'm going to be the first 55+ cornerback to try out for the NFL. I guarantee I'll stay for the whole try-out.
She can take those mad skillz back to the Lingerie Football League.
Fix me a sandwich.
kentuckyliz is good.
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