Laurie Orlando, It's Time To Make History Again

So here I am, getting ready to work the sidelines for the University of Cincinnati-South East Missouri State football broadcast Saturday night, and I have college football on the TV in the background.

First game I watch, I see my former ESPN colleague, Cara Capuano, on the sidelines of the SEC game of the week. Then I flip over and see another ex-ESPN colleague, my buddy Pam Ward, back in the booth doing play by play for the Michigan State game.

Cool, I thought, all three of us working games on this big college football Saturday.

And it would have been cool, if it hadn't been so ironic.

Because just the day before, I talked with Gayle Sierens.

Who, you might ask?

For those of us who grew up watching sports, Gayle Sierens is right up there with Neil Armstrong when it comes to blazing trails. The difference: While Armstrong was followed on the moon by 11 other men, Gayle Sierens is the only one to do what she did: Be the first woman to call play-by-play for an NFL game.

I interviewed her for my radio sports show as part of our coverage of the beginning of the NFL season, but also because I was interested in how she got the opportunity in the first place, the reaction to her doing the game, and her eventual decision to give up sports for news. Good call on her part, because she's been on the air at WFLA in Tampa for more than 30 years now.

But part of our discussion included Gayle's thoughts on when another woman would have the opportunity she had to call an NFL game. We mentioned Pam, Lesley Visser, who, earlier this year, became the first woman to do color for a televised NFL game, Andrea Kremer and the like who are more than qualified.

"I think it will happen sooner rather than later," Sierens said.

Could be, especially with the proliferation of games broadcasts on cable and webcasts on the internet offering more opportunities than ever for anyone interested in play by play, not just women, to get into broadcasting. 

That leads me to Laurie Orlando. Laurie is senior VP for talent development at ESPN and ironically, was quoted in a New York Times story about Gayle Sierens earlier this year.

"The tapes I get are for women looking for studio and sideline roles," she said. "Our goal is to get the same kind of acceptance for women doing play-by-play." 

Well, I, for one, have done college basketball play by play for seven years now, for radio and television, and yes, a number of those games have been ESPN regional broadcasts. But I've yet to break into the regular rotation of ESPN's stable of play-by -play broadcasters. (Laurie, check out my YouTube channel at betsymrosspxp) And I've worked with a number of very competent women, former coaches and players alike, who have served as my color analysts who face the same frustration, getting noticed in a 500-channel universe.

If, indeed, Laurie, you want women to be accepted doing play by play, my suggestion is to have MORE women doing play by play. ESPN's Rosa Gatti told us basically the same thing at this spring's AWSM (Association for Women in Sports Media) convention. She said that ESPN is actively looking for women to fill those play-by-play roles, especially for women's sports.

So let's see if that's true. It's two months before the first women's college basketball games will be televised, and ESPN is making its assignments of broadcast teams for those games. ESPN has led the way in sports for 30 years now, and it's time to make another breakthrough decision: Put more women in play by play roles. That's how women will be accepted.

And that's how ESPN can continue to be the Worldwide Leader in Sports.