By: Caitlin Fletcher

ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Monday Night Football: three things teenage girls could care less about. Last Sunday they were more likely to watch Desperate Housewives than the New York Giants vs. the San Francisco 49ers game.

If you are a teenage girl who would rather go to a Royals game than go shopping, I’m right there with you. Some girls, shocking I know, understand and actually enjoy sports. Some girls know what RBI stands for. Some girls know what a player did to get a foul called in the basketball game last week. Some girls, hopefully most at this point, know which teams are going to the Super Bowl.

I know girls who get worked up about games, who yell at the TV because the referee is literally being an idiot and you swear, no matter what everyone says, that he is plotting against your team. Sports are not hard to understand. If high school girls can handle chemistry is it really a stretch to say she can understand sports?

If a girl sits down at the table and picks up the sports page most guys are more likely to wonder what she’s doing than to ask if he can read it once she’s finished.

I like talking about sports, reading the sports page is just a part of that. But when I try to say something about the Chiefs, one my brothers just responds, “Oh really, do you even know who the coach is?” Does it matter? I don’t care who’s calling the plays, I don’t care what the tight end’s name is, but I’m able to talk about football if I understand what he’s supposed to do and what actually happened once the play was over.

Maybe the lack of interest teenage girls have for sports is the reason women are hardly represented in the media as sports reporters. Occasionally there is a woman who is prominent in the sports world, like Erin Andrews. But is she really popular because of her knowledge of athletics? I doubt it, but she should be.

Erin Andrews is an example of a female sports caster who knows what she’s talking about, and there are more like her. But when these women get on TV you hear a guy groan because she may not look like Erin Andrews, therefore she obviously isn’t worth their time. But my question is would she be on ESPN if she were completely clueless?

Men who watch sports are guilty of not taking female sports reporters seriously, but so are athletes. It’s common practice for reporters to go into a team’s locker room after a game, but it’s different when women enter the locker room.

When women enter the locker room some of these men suddenly turn into teenage boys. It is apparently extremely hard to take a female seriously when they are talking about touchdowns, penalties and field goals.

Maybe the locker room isn’t the best place for a woman to be, but if male reporters can be there then why not? Women do not lack the capability to conduct themselves in a professional way while in that environment.

Maybe the reason you don’t really see female sports reporters is because men are more passionate about sports, but if you find the right woman you can find one who understands sports on the same level as a man.

But would a man read a column on the baseball hall of fame by a woman if it was as long as the columns Joe Posnanski writes? Would they discredit it as soon as they read the byline? They shouldn’t.

So when you meet a girl who aspires to be a sports reporter, who yells “come on ref, are you blind?!” at the TV and who can quote a movie like The Sandlot word for word, but can’t do the same with something like The Notebook, don’t question it. Just go with it.