Football, A Guys' Game

This is Diana Nyad for KCRW. And this is The Score.

University of Colorado is ostensibly over. In February, charges surfaced that an eventual number of nine women students had been raped since 1997 by members of the football team. In the months since, the university President, Elizabeth Hoffman, issued an investigation and suspended head Coach Gary Barnett. This Wednesday, with several of the victims having withdrawn for fear of being subjected to the criminal justice process, and with lack of sufficient criminal evidence, Colorado-s attorney general declined to file formal charges in any of the nine alleged sexual assaults. Three of the women have actually sued the University of Colorado in federal court but, as far as the state and the school go, the cases are closed.

Pop Warner days to believe that the worst thing in the world a football player could ever be-worse than a loser, worse than a cheater, worse than a criminal -is to be a woman. Misogynist language in the football locker room, in the huddle, on the bench is legendary. You-ve heard the classic coach put down -Ladies, may I have your attention?- But that-s the least of it. I covered the Pop Warner Super Bowl a few years back. It takes a lot to make me blush but, listening with headphones as our microphones were placed on the sidelines, I turned beet red a number of times.