Mark Wahlberg has his Tightie Whities in a Bunch

Enough said. 

I was half watching the ESPY's to see who the winners were and half watching Jaelyn when I thought I heard Mark Wahlberg say something to the effect of "Men like looking at women, men like watching sports, so you would think women's sports would be a great thing for us to watch...but it's not."

Huh? Can I rewind it please? Yes, that's exactly what he said. Wow. AND to top it off, he was presenting the Best Female Athlete award. Thank you for degrading women's sports before presenting the award to Lindsey Vonn, one of the greatest American skiers of all time.

Who assigned this guy to present this award? It's no secret he's a male chauvinist pig. Check out this charming quote from 2000:

When I meet a woman, I'm not interested in her if she has great taste in arts or a good sense of humor. I just notice whether or not she's got great breasts.

And lets of course not forget his phase of dropping his pants during his concerts back in the day, just assuming we all wanted to see his bleached tightie whities. Guess what is a huge turn-off, Marky? Being inexcusably full of yourself.

So again, WHY was Wahlberg presenting the award for Best Female Athlete? What about a fellow kick-ass woman, like Uma Thurman or Cameron Diaz or Beyonce or Alicia Keys or...come on, there are a lot of them! Or a man who has portrayed respect for women and even women's sports in particular? Is that so hard? As opposed to picking a completely narcissistic snot?

Not a good look, ESPN.

Now let's take a look at the nominees - guess if I had taken a closer look sooner, I would have known the ESPY's were in no way going to be respectful of the female athlete. Women are in bold:

BEST MALE ATHLETE
Drew Brees, NFL
Kobe Bryant, NBA
LeBron James, NBA
Jimmie Johnson, NASCAR
Albert Pujols, MLB

BEST FEMALE ATHLETE
Maya Moore, NCAA Basketball
Diana Taurasi, WNBA
Lindsey Vonn, Skiing
Serena Williams, Tennis

BEST CHAMPIONSHIP PERFORMANCE
Drew Brees, Super Bowl XLIV
Anthony Johnson, Big Sky Conference Championship
Michael Phelps, World Swimming Championships
Shaun White, Winter Olympics

BEST BREAKTHROUGH ATHLETE
Brittney Griner, Baylor Women's Basketball
Chris Johnson, Tennessee Titans
Stephen Strasburg, Washington Nationals
John Wall, University of Kentucky Basketball

BEST RECORD-BREAKING PERFORMANCE
Usain Bolt, 100 and 200-meter World Records
Brett Favre, NFL record for consecutive starts
Roger Federer, Most Grand Slam singles titles
Connecticut Women's Basketball, Longest winning streak in Women's NCAA Basketball History
Isner vs. Mahut at Wimbledon, Longest Match in Professional Tennis History

BEST UPSET
Frankie Edgar over B.J. Penn, MMA
Hawaii softball upsets #1 Alabama, NCAA Softball
Northern Iowa shocks No. 1 Kansas, NCAA Men's Basketball
Y. E. Yang stuns Tiger Woods, PGA Championship

BEST GAME
Twins beat Tigers in Extra Innings (AL Central One-Game Tiebreak)
Canada edges USA in Olympic hockey championship game in overtime
Duke gets past Butler in Men's NCAA Championship

BEST MOMENT
Phil Mickelson, 2009 Masters
Joannie Rochette, Winter Olympics
New Orleans Saints, Super Bowl XLIV
Landon Donovan World Cup vs. Algeria

BEST TEAM
Alabama Football
Chicago Blackhawks
Connecticut Women's Basketball
Los Angeles Lakers
New Orleans Saints
New York Yankees

CASTROL EDGE PERFORMANCE UNDER PRESSURE AWARD
Sidney Crosby in the Olympic Hockey Gold Medal Game
Brett Favre in his return to Green Bay
Landon Donovan World Cup vs. Algeria
Stephen Strasburg in MLB debut

BEST SPORTS MOVIE
Big Fan
Invictus
The Blind Side
The Damned United
The Karate Kid

BEST COACH/MANAGER
Geno Auriemma, Connecticut Women's Basketball
Joe Girardi, NY Yankees
Phil Jackson, Los Angeles Lakers
Mike Krzyzewski, Duke Men's Basketball
Sean Payton, New Orleans Saints
Nick Saban, Alabama football

BEST NFL PLAYER
Drew Brees, New Orleans
Brett Favre, Minnesota
Chris Johnson, Tennessee
Peyton Manning, Indianapolis
Darrelle Revis, New York Jets
Charles Woodson, Green Bay

BEST MLB PLAYER
Zach Greinke, Kansas City
Derek Jeter, New York Yankees
Tim Lincecum, San Francisco
Joe Mauer, Minnesota
Albert Pujols, St. Louis

BEST NHL PLAYER
Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh
Ryan Miller, Buffalo
Alexander Ovechkin, Washington
Henrik Seden, Vancouver
Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay

BEST DRIVER
Kyle Busch
Dario Franchitti
Ron Hornaday
Jimmie Johnson
Tony Schumacher

BEST NBA PLAYER
Kobe Bryant, LA Lakers
Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City
Dwight Howard, Orlando
LeBron James, Cleveland
Dwyane Wade, Miami

BEST WNBA PLAYER
Tamika Catchings, Indiana
Becky Hammon, San Antonio
Lauren Jackson, Seattle
Candace Parker, Los Angeles
Diana Taurasi, Phoenix

BEST FIGHTER
Floyd Mayweather
Manny Pacquiao
Georges St. Pierre

BEST MALE GOLFER
Ernie Els
Phil Mickelson
Tiger Woods

BEST FEMALE GOLFER
Cristie Kerr
Lorena Ochoa
Jiyai Shin

BEST MALE TENNIS PLAYER
Roger Federer
Juan Martin del Potro
Rafael Nadal

BEST FEMALE TENNIS PLAYER
Kim Clijsters
Serena Williams
Venus Williams

BEST MALE COLLEGE ATHLETE
Blake Geoffrion, Wisconsin Hockey
Mark Ingram, Alabama Football
Evan Turner, Ohio State Basketball
John Wall, Kentucky Basketball
Garrett Wittels, Florida International Baseball

BEST FEMALE COLLEGE ATHLETE
Tina Charles, Connecticut Women's Basketball
Megan Hodge, Penn State Volleyball
Megan Lagenfeld, UCLA Softball
Maya Moore, Connecticut Women's Basketball

BEST MALE ACTION SPORT ATHLETE
Bobby Brown, Freestyle Skiing
Ryan Dungey, Motocross
Mick Fanning, Surfer
Garrett Reynolds, BMX
Shaun White, Snowboard

BEST FEMALE ACTION SPORT ATHLETE
Torah Bright, Snowboarding
Ashley Fiolek, Motocross
Jen Hudak, Freestyle Skiing
Stephanie Gilmore, Surfing
Ashleigh McIvor, Freestyle Skiing

BEST JOCKEY
Calvin Borel
Julien Leparoux
Mike Smith

BEST MALE ATHLETE WITH A DISABILITY
Steve Cash
Rudy Garcia-Tolson
Andy Soule

BEST FEMALE ATHLETE WITH A DISABILITY
Linnea Dohring
Alana Nichols
Amy Palmiero-Winters
Stephani Victor

BEST BOWLER
Kelly Kulick
Bill O'Neill
Walter Ray Williams Jr.

BEST MALE US OLYMPIC ATHLETE
Apolo Anton Ohno, Speedskating
Shani Davis, Speedskating
Evan Lysacek, Figure Skating
Bode Miller, Skiing
Shaun White, Snowboarding

BEST FEMALE US OLYMPIC ATHLETE
Hannah Kearney, Skiing
Julia Mancuso, Skiing
Lindsey Vonn, Skiing

BEST MLS PLAYER
Connor Casey, Colorado
Jeff Cunningham, Dallas
Landon Donovan, Los Angeles
Shalrie Joseph, New England
Kasey Keller, Seattle

BEST TRACK AND FIELD ATHLETE
Usain Bolt
Allyson Felix

Sanya Richards

....need I say more? Apparently only women's basketball really has anything ESPY-worthy going on. And only 3 female olympic nominees? 

Not a good look, ESPN.

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There are 2 comments on this post. Join the discussion!

McCarter.Nathan

ESPN, sadly, only has a vested interest in NCAA Softball, WNBA/NCAA, and then specialty stories (First win for female PBA bowler, Olympics, etc.) And that's precisely why they are the only nominees. They air the Breeder's Cup so we'll get "Best Jockey", they air MLS games so we'll get "Best MLS Player" - not even Best Male Soccer Player, no Best MLS Player...

Where is the Best WPS Player? Nowhere to be found. Why? Because they don't air the games and can't promote it via an ESPY. It's reasons like this that have prevented me from caring about the ESPYs (well, that and fan voting). So this doesn't surprise me and is nothing new with ESPN. It took until they started covering MMA until Georges St. Pierre was added to the "Best Fighter" category which is misnamed as top boxers win it year after year and that is only one facet of "Fighting".

Regardless, I don't expect this to change as it's not a legit award. It's just something ESPN can put on to draw ratings and get fan votes via their website to create traffic. Will we ever get a quality and meaningful sporting award? Doubtful.

Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 9:19am PDT

MarQFPR

I would have to agree with Nathan and say that MMA needs its own categories, i.e. best male and female MMA fighter. It is the biggest growing sport in the nation if not world wide. ESPN still thinks MMA is a fad and yet it has been selling more tickets than boxing events for the past five years.

ESPN needs to get its head in the game.

Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 2:28am PDT