NBC’s Cris Collinsworth needs to learn that women know about football, too

NBC’s Cris Collinsworth may not have meant to make a sexist statement during a Wednesday NFL telecast, but that’s how it came out.

In the second quarter of NBC’s Wednesday telecast of the Steelers’ 19-14 win over the Ravens, analyst Cris Collinsworth decided to put his foot in his mouth and take a big, honking bite.

“Everybody is a fan,” Collinsworth said of the Steel City. “Particularly, the ladies that I met. They have really specific questions about the game. I was like ‘wow,’ just blown away by it.”

We assume this was an attempt for Collinsworth to compliment the football intelligence of Pittsburgh’s female popoulation, but it did not go over well, nor should it have. Such cavalierly sexist comments have no place on any sports broadcast. If Collinsworth wants to talk to women who have intelligent football questions, he can go inside his own house, so to speak.

Football Night in America sideline reporter Michele Tafoya is quite astute when it comes to the game, and longtime NBC contributor Andrea Kremer worked for NFL Films at one point in her career. During her application process, Kremer (as all NFL Films employees were asked to do) was directed to describe a trap play on paper. Kremer, who grew up loving and learning about football in the Philadelphia area, had to ask for extra paper because her answer was so detailed.

There are all kinds of women who love and know about football, both in and out of the business, and whether Collinsworth’s intentions were innocuous or not, we are (or we should be) far past the point where it’s a cute thing. Perhaps that’s something Collinsworth himself can ask a few questions about.