Erin Andrews case bringing out the worst in sports fans

FOX Sports broadcaster Erin Andrews was recently awarded $55 million in her peeping tom civil lawsuit against Marriott, and it didn’t take long for that news to show the ugly side of fans.

College football…no, make that college sports…oh heck, sports in general is a male-dominated industry. While women have begun to emerge from the shadows in sports, there is still a long way to go, and it may never reach a place of equality.

Related Story: Erin Andrews Awarded $55 Million in Marriott Lawsuit (Via FanSided.com)

While that fact may be sad, what’s even more disheartening is when the ugly head of misogyny in sports creeps into the public light, and that was never more evident than recently in the firestorm surrounding Erin Andrews.

In case you hadn’t heard, Andrews was the victim of a peeping tom in her Nashville Marriott hotel room in 2009. While the perpetrator of this crime – Michael David Barrett – has already served 2 1/2 years in federal prison, Andrews sought $75 million in civil damages against West End Hotel Partners, which operates the Marriott at Vanderbilt.

After days of gut-wrenching, tear-filled testimony, the jury came back with an award of $55 million for Andrews – a sum that through appeals and other legal loopholes she’ll likely never see.

In the days following the announcement of the award, the reaction from fans ranged from crude to downright stupid, with a few acceptables sprinkled in here and there. It was as if someone pushed all the buttons in the neanderthal elevator and we were forced to stop at every floor on the way down.

A disgusting sampling? Here you go.,

And there were even worse tweets which are not suitable for publication here.

If it wasn’t already pretty clear (which in truth, it was), many male fans apparently still think of reporters such as Andrews as nothing more than eye candy – a pretty face to gawk at while they scratch their protruding cerebral ridge trying to figure out how to open the can of beer nuts.

Whether or not you think Erin Andrews has anything to contribute to a sports broadcast – college or otherwise – isn’t the point. What happened to her in that Nashville hotel should never happen to anyone. Her good looks and fame have nothing to do with the cash award, they only served as a purpose for the criminal Mr. Barrett to make some money (as he freely admitted).

Try to dig deep into your club-toting, knuckle-dragging brains for a moment, and think about how you might react if this was your mother, wife, sister or daughter who had been illegally peeped on and then had the video of the event plastered all over the internet. I imagine the “she just wanted to get paid” commentary, and “she used her looks to get where she was” nonsense wouldn’t even fly.

“This happens every day of my life. Either I get a tweet, or somebody makes a comment in the paper, or somebody sends me a still of the video to my Twitter” – Erin Andrews

Those weren’t crocodile tears streaming down Andrews’ face in the courtroom, this crime clearly shook her to the core, as it probably would any woman.

This wasn’t an attempt by Andrews to secure her financial future. My guess is that’s not something she really has to worry about. This was about sending a message that this kind of behavior wasn’t to be tolerated, and that hotels (or their employees) who freely engage in helping autograph hounds and stalker-ish groupies get close to their prey need to be exposed.

It’s not about the money. It’s not about Erin Andrews’ fame. She was criminally assaulted – mentally and emotionally – and she deserved the opportunity to fight back against those who allowed it to happen. The maddening reaction by so many fans is proof that we just don’t seem to get it.

If you’re a carrier of the Y chromosome, you may not understand the fear that Andrews and other female broadcasters feel on a daily basis. You may not understand that a crime of stalking and peeping may seem somewhat harmless on the surface, but to a woman in Andrews’ position, they represent the same feeling of violation and being unsafe that anyone might feel if their house were broken into and robbed.

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Erin Andrews spoke up and fought back. The dollar amount is immaterial. Her bravery and dignity are the real story, and if you don’t get that fact then please return to the cave from whence you came.