2014By Reva Friedel on

Last week, we were subjected to some asinine, condescending fantasy football advice, courtesy of espnW, in which players were ranked by whether or not they were considered marriage material vs. a one-night stand.

Well, apparently enough people found this to be offensive and patronizing, because espnW is now changing their tune. They’ve added an “editor’s note” that said the following, retracting player rankings based on whether or not NFL players were marriage material:

Editor’s note: espnW aims to speak to all women who love sports, from the deeply engaged to the casual fan. For the already knowledgeable, serious fantasy football player — female or male — ESPN’s extensive fantasy football coverage offers everything they might need.

Given that, we were struck by the unique voices of the women at Her Fantasy. Far from being a patronizing effort, we saw the sisters’ voices as an entertaining layer to supplement ESPN’s existing coverage. For fantasy rookies, they offer an alternative, tongue-in-cheek approach that we enjoyed and think readers who are new to the game might, too. In this particular post, one of several already on espnW.com, they were deliberately playful with relationship tropes and categories — all in the spirit of having fun with the game and having a good laugh. Understanding that the lighthearted approach here was misunderstood as perpetuating the very stereotypes we intended to have fun with, we will not use the relationship category conceit moving forward. We look forward to working with the Her Fantasy team this season to develop their voices with espnW.

…Understanding that the lighthearted approach here was misunderstood as perpetuating the very stereotypes we intended to have fun with…

“We were TOTALLY kidding, but if you were too dumb and sensitive to see that, then FINE.” The approach could have been passed off as lighthearted if there was anything funny about their list, but instead they pushed lazy stereotypes and we’re supposed to now feel bad for not getting the attempted joke?

Oh well, at least we’ll always remember the time espnW “lightheartedly” called Ben Roethlisberger a “flirt.”

About Reva Friedel

Reva is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and the AP Party. She lives in Orange County and roots for zero California teams.

View all posts by Reva Friedel

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