So, somebody saw me mention that my boy Clinton Portis is one of the few sports figures you can get an interesting interview out of and decided to go for it. Apparently he hadn’t heard of Ines Sainz before this morning, but naturally the host of 106.7’s DC sports talk radio show wasn’t going to pass on the opportunity to get Clint’s opinion.  So they brought him up to speed and he had this to say:

“You know man, I think you put women reporters in the locker room in positions to see guys walking around naked, and you sit in the locker room with 53 guys, and all of the sudden you see a nice woman in the locker room, I think men are gonna tend to turn and look and want to say something to that woman. For the woman, I think they make it so much that you can’t interact and you can’t be involved with athletes, you can’t talk to these guys, you can’t interact with these guys.

“And I mean, you put a woman and you give her a choice of 53 athletes, somebody got to be appealing to her. You know, somebody got to spark her interest, or she’s gonna want somebody. I don’t know what kind of woman won’t, if you get to go and look at 53 men’s packages. And you’re just sitting here, saying ‘Oh, none of this is attractive to me.’ I know you’re doing a job, but at the same time, the same way I’m gonna cut my eye if I see somebody worth talking to, I’m sure they do the same thing.”

As quoted by Dan Steinberg, D.C. Sports Bog

So I don’t have my decoder ring handy, but I think he’s basically saying that on some level she had to want someone in that locker room? Hm.  That’s a tough sell.  My “comes with the territory” attitude was met with some criticism, and I think we can safely say that this is going to be a LOT less popular than that.  But he’s a doctor, so good luck trying to argue.

What Portis’s comment does show you, though, is the ego that comes with being young, rich alpha males who are the picture of physical fitness. Women are throwing themselves at these guys day in and day out.  It’s part of who they are.  If anyone’s going to take home a former Miss Spain who loves sports, why wouldn’t it be one of them?

The truth of the matter is that the scale of this story is ludicrous.  Sainz didn’t give a crap.  She said yesterday that she never felt like she was being “attacked” or anything like that.  She was unphased, and she got over it.  Another member of the media who was embarrassed for her brought the story up on her behalf.  And she must be pretty thankful, because it’s made her famous in America, as evidenced by her appearance on the freaking CBS Early Show this morning (all without being violated by a stalker). The bottom line, which Portis probably understands whether he knows it or not, is this: men will naturally treat women like they treat themselves.  So while there’s nothing wrong with the exposure you get with the bikini shoots and all of that (believe me, you won’t hear me hating on those), like everything in life, you’re making a tradeoff.  You can’t have it both ways.  It would be nice if you could, but we can’t help it.  We’re men.  After you put it out there, that shit is burned into our retinas and will cloud our simple brains forever.  So once you tell the world that it’s OK for us to drool over you, it’s no takesies-backsies.  Sorry, them’s the rules.

And judging by her own response to the situation, I think she gets that.  This is not a dumb woman.  If anyone actually read her mini-interview in Maxim, they’d know she has a master’s degree in law.  So everybody out there flaunting their BS in ethics (see what I did there?) needs to give up the White Knight routine and get off their high horses (as usual).

And while I’m not going to stamp my John Hancock alongside Clinton Portis’s take on the situation, I’m sure glad that there are a few guys out there who don’t follow the PC script.

My apologies to Dan Steinberg for also taking that picture up top from an old post on his blog, but it was too good to pass over.

Follow Mike on Twitter @mickeyvee and read his ramblings on other topics at Wannabe Genius.

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