Rudy Martzke on TV Sports

Special Thanks to Rudy Martzke of USA Today. This column was originally printed on October 10, 2002.

Rooney shows he's out of touch

In just two seasons of displaying her thorough preparation and knowledge, ESPN's Suzy Kolber has become the NFL's best TV sideline reporter.

In fact, most of the NFL's top reporters are women. You wouldn't know it from out-of-touch CBS 60 Minutes commentator Andy Rooney.

In following former outdated CBS commentators Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder and Ben Wright, who outraged the public with insensitive remarks about black athletes and female golfers, respectively, Rooney trashed female TV reporters as a group last week on a TV show.

"He's offended so many other groups of people, why should we be spared," Kolber said. "Obviously it's silly to lump all women reporters into one group. That is unfair. So what Andy Rooney says doesn't bother me."

Rooney did bother ESPN's Dick Vitale, who termed Rooney "archaic."

And ESPN college football analyst Bill Curry said, "Andy, get a life. How many years did you play? In football, if you can do the job, you play. The same with reporters, like our Michele Tafoya. Don't knock somebody because you don't like their gender."

Eight-year veteran Pam Oliver, Fox's No. 1 NFL reporter, said, "What disappoints me is that (Rooney) is on a show that portrays itself as having journalistic integrity. His comments reflect a pretty insensitive view of women covering football, but he probably speaks for a lot of his generation. If he wants to debate the ins and outs of football, I'd be happy to. A lot of men who are broadcasters haven't played football either."

As a guest on the Boomer Esiason Show on MSG Network, Rooney, 83, said, "Those damn women they have down on the sidelines ... don't know what the hell they're talking about. ... A woman has no business being down there trying to make some comment about a football game."

Esiason, also an analyst on CBS' NFL Today and Westwood One Radio's NFL games, said Rooney's barrage at female reporters "came at the end of a long interview. We were going to a commercial and I didn't have time to respond, but my views on women in sports are well-known. One of my best friends is (CBS') Lesley Visser, and she's not only a great pioneer but she's vibrant, smart and knows football."

CBS Sports officials understandably preferred their reporters not discuss the comments by Rooney, but Visser returned a call.

"I wish he (Rooney) had not been monolithic on this," Visser said. "There is more variance within the gender than between the genders. Some women like Suzy Kolber, Bonnie Bernstein and Pam Oliver are very good. Some are not substantial."

That's a fair assessment, but one that applies to male reporters as well.

To read more about Andy Rooney's remarks, click here.