Kicking off a new series on SportsAsToldByAGirl, I will be spotlight a different female who is either an athlete, a sports personality (i.e. journalist) or part of the athletic staff among a few other categories that are still in the works.
To start off, I picked Katie Nolan. For those who do not know, Katie Nolan is sports personality who works for Fox Sports. Nolan was a digital correspondent for the Fox Sports show, Crowd Goes Wild which was co-hosted by Regis Philbin. Nolan then went on to host her own web show, No Filter With Katie Nolan before finally getting her own show on Fox Sports. The show, cleverly titled Garbage Time airs Sunday nights at 9:30 pm EST on Fox Sports and features Katie going over the news of the week and giving her take on sports in general. Sometimes Nolan will have a guest who she interviews before making them do something hilarious like asking Odell Beckham Jr to rate himself on various non-football related activities.
What makes Katie Nolan different though? Nolan brings a completely new and refreshing attitude to sports. She does something that most reporters cringe at…she makes fun of sports, the athletes, coaches and pretty much anything that sparks her attention. In a world full of old guys trying to protect the “sanctity of the game”, Nolan rips the game, maybe even worse that the old guys who are living in the past. Another thing that makes Nolan different is her attitude towards athletes, especially during the wake of Ray Rice’s domestic violence scandal which is coincidently the first time that I was introduced to Nolan.
In a video entitled “Why Boycotting the NFL because of Ray Rice is not the answer”, Nolan was open, honest and candid on her feelings about the boycott and with the scandal. One line, in particular, was extremely powerful, “A boycott means walking away…” Nolan begins and then ends the line with “I would rather fight back.” Nolan’s strong stance with the NFL’s poor handling of domestic violence cases (at the time) was revolutionary for a reporter and especially for a female. In that same video, Nolan calls out sports media for making women objects who are “allowed to read headlines, patrol sidelines and generally facilitate conversation for their male colleagues” which is the unfortunate reality for women in sports broadcasting.
Nolan is changing that though especially with that video. The video sparks thousands of views on Youtube and gave Nolan a permanent space in the zeitgeist. Nolan speaks up for women who wish to sit at the table with guys like Stephen A. Smith or Boomer and actually give their opinion. She stands for what many women dream of becoming, but still Nolan knows that it will not change overnight. She knows that the media has to respect women for the NFL to respect women, especially enough to maybe get one female commentator at some point.
Nolan has changed the game for women now and gave them a voice to look up to or maybe even try to work with someday. Nolan is the girl slowly but surely easing her way into her place at the “big boy” table which by now, she rightfully deserves. If only ESPN or Fox Sports would listen, then maybe just maybe women will be able to host First Take without having to sit in the middle of two guys yelling. Maybe just maybe, women will finally be able to voice their opinion, analyze sports and change what has always been a man’s world, not into a woman’s world, but a world where women and men can talk about sports together and both be taken seriously.
