Colin Cowherd believes Sophie Cunningham is the WNBA’s sex symbol

Sophie Cunningham was waiting for Colin Cowherd to describe her in a very specific way. Where he ended up going was certainly a choice.

Cunningham appeared on The Colin Cowherd Podcast to discuss, in part, the rebranding of her podcast from Show Me Something to No Hesitation, which also includes a co-host swap. Cunningham scoffed at the notion that the change was related to her comments about transgender athletes, something former co-host West Wilson publicly disagreed with her about.

In that conversation, Cowherd had a different line of thought for the WNBA player, who has become a lightning rod since those comments and who some have used to turn the women’s basketball league into a narrative factory. At one point, he started lining up a question for Cunningham, though it wasn’t the one she might have been expecting.

“You are kind of viewed as the leagues…ummm” @colincowherd

“Just say it” @sophaller

“Sex symbol”

“That is way better, I thought you were gonna go somewhere completely different” pic.twitter.com/4AknRkHWR2

— The Volume (@TheVolumeSports) September 11, 2026

“You are kind of viewed a little bit as the league’s…ummm,” Cowherd said, looking for the right words.

“Just say it,” Cunningham interrupted. “I don’t care.”

“Sex symbol,” he responded. “Is that fair?”

“That is way better,” said Cunningham. “I thought you were gonna go somewhere completely different.”

“You’re tough. You’ll fight anybody. You’ll taunt anybody. But you’ll make sure coming into the arena, ‘I look good, and I want you to know I look good.'”

More than a few people wished 62-year-old Colin Cowherd had pumped the brakes a little on this one, especially since Cunningham’s podcast is part of his network, which made it even cringier.

All of which is fine, except that the conversation feels strange and out-of-touch when you realize Cowherd could have been describing so many other WNBA players that way.

Strong, tough women’s basketball players have worn stylish, striking fashion before games for years, with many of them doubling as models.

A’ja Wilson, Skylar Diggins-Smith, DiJonai Carrington, Angel Reese, Rickea Jackson, and Cameron Brink, just to name a few, have all become well-known for how tough they are on the court and how fashionable they are off it.

Cunningham leaned into Cowherd’s assessment, saying, “For some reason, our society, if you play basketball, you can’t dress that way, or you can’t be girly. No one’s ever said it, but it’s like, they kind of feel that you can’t be both. Screw all that. Yes, you can. You can be girly, and you can go out and kick someone’s ass.”

Again, that’s a good sentiment, but it’s not as though WNBA players haven’t been pushing back against that stigma for years.

Before Cowherd referred to Cunningham as a sex symbol, she presumed that he was going to call her something else. And one is left to wonder whether that presumption correlates with why the blonde-haired role player is being presented here as the WNBA’s superiorly attractive player.