“You don't need to play at a high level in your respective sport to have a deep understanding”: Paige Spiranac posts pointed message on X
Paige Spiranac had a pointed response to a viral tweet on Monday. Spiranac is a golfer and creates content mostly around that sport, but she knows and is involved with other sports as well.
Spiranac called out a tweet that asked why anyone would ever want to listen to three women talk about football. When pressured, the original poster offered no apology, instead doubling down by saying it was like "asking cats to bark" and that men are "better at it."
Spiranac's post was captioned:
"I’m sure this take will provoke only kind comments and absolutely no one will tell me to shut up because of what I like to wear lol."
She went even further in the video itself, saying that she does like to give people the benefit of the doubt and noted that many people just prefer to hear about sports from people who played.
In the case of football, no woman has ever played in the NFL. The former LPGA Tour pro countered this with the statement that the majority of broadcasters are not former players and they're paid more highly than everyone else.
The golfer added:
"There are also legendary coaches who didn't play past a high-school level. So you don't need to play at a high level in your respective sport to have a deep understanding about it."
Spiranac also spoke about how some women have the uphill battle of being qualified and insightful about a sport that they can't talk about because "men only want to listen to other men talk about sports."
Paige Spiranac on the 'vicious cycle' for women in sports
In the video above, Paige Spiranac also went on to highlight the challenges faced by women in sports media. Being a content creator, she is a woman in sports media now.
She said that women can't get in the door of sports media since, excluding women's basketball, women's golf, and select other sports, they haven't played it. That has been the defining characteristic that supposedly qualifies anyone.
Spiranac said that women have to then use what they have at their disposal, which might be their looks. In that case, people won't take them seriously for using looks as an advantage, putting them back to square one. She said:
"It's a vicious cycle that's never-ending. Their counter is that women can talk about women's sports, but women's sports don't get the funding which means they don't get the eyeballs."
Caitlin Clark and Nelly Korda, who played together at the Annika pro-am earlier this year, have drawn eyes to their respective sports, but they are still far from the same level as their male counterparts. This is something Spiranac laments and feels passionate about.