The only reason I know who she is is because she is the black player on the team. As an occasional soccer fan/watcher, no one cares about the goalie when you're on the best team in the world. I couldn't name Brazil's (male) keeper. Why? 'Cause everone else is so damn good. And yeah, Brianna's no Heather Mitts.
As a devoted USWNT fan, I don't care in the least what Scurry's race is. Heck if she had green skin, I wouldn't give a rat's @$$. Bottom line, she is an incredible keeper--arguably the best to ever play the women's game. And among true fans, I don't think this is an issue. Shouldn't be, anyway. However, in the media, it is. As much as they downplay it, the mainstream press overall still gives more attention to white/attractive athletes. For example, in the WC '99 award ceremony, Sepp Blatter was placing the gold medals on the US players necks. Almost all of them got closeup shots of their faces as their medal was being awarded. Yet, when it was Bri's turn, they quickly cut away to a shot of Mia. Maybe I'm reading too much into one incident, but it just seems racist to me. I think its a combination of her color and looks. Some black female athletes do get a fair amount of attention from the media...but look at them. Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoops, Marion Jones...they are feminine, good looking ladies. Like I said before, I don't hold it against Bri at all. It's the way things are....some people aren't as attractive as others. It doesn't matter to me or affect my opinion of her. She may never get the respect she deserves from the press, but she always will have the utmost respect from this fan.
I don't even know if this is true. I think if you had young kids list the 10 most famous female athletes in this country you would find a great number of black athletes in there. Now, if you asked them to list the 10 most popular men soccer players in this country, you again will see blacks represented well.
That would be Johnny Walker, goalie for Metro. The Metro supporters have several songs and chants they perform about him during a match. The funniest is on goal kicks. Instead of the hummimg crescendo breaking into the usual "You suck....etc." reserved for the opposition, they break into "Here's Johnny, and scat the old Johnny Carson theme song. Joe Cannon, Kevin Hartman, Pat Onstead, Henry Ring -- MLS is loaded with strong keepers. Former Metro Tim Howard is in his second season as Manchester United's no. 1. The US men have a history of very fine keepers; that's what comes from being a historic punching bag on the international scene -- US keepers had to withstand terrific shellings just to keep the score respectable. That has turned 180 in the last decade, but the heritage remains. Brianna seems the gal most likely to fit into the rough-and-tumble, foul-mouthed world of MLS -- or at least something more potent than the near-beer the WUSA served up. The US women have the trophies and the gold, but the men have their First Division. It creates a new set of loyalties; one is torn between club and country, and it really get ragged when players are pulled away from the club for WC qualifiers. ...and we can name our keepers.
Fantastic! Well stated. So, let me ask you this. Is there anything you, I or the average soccer fan/consumer can do to initiate change or is this one of those unfortunate cases of the status quo continuing on unimpeded. In other words, when will all the ugly, colored folk get a shot at making some money and becoming media darlings? (Pull your knickers out of your bum, I meant for that last remark to be flippant and stupid. But you get the idea, hopefully)
Well, I don't think that race has as much to do with this as just pure looks. Pretty people, regardless of race or color, get camera attention. Ugly people don't. Serena Williams is practically a fashion model. Mary Pierce doesn't get too many closeups.
Has it occurred to anyone that maybe the reason is simple, that perhaps her agent sucks? She doesn't get the publicity because she's black? Are some of you still living in the 70's? She doesn't get publicity because she's ugly? Look, put her in a room with both Serena and Venus Williams and there is no sane person that would rather take them out on a date than Scurry. But yet, whose ugly mug do you keep seeing in commercials and advertisements? I disagree that you don't hear enough about her. Now, the media is only focusing on the "originals", but if you recall after WWC 99', she was very well-spoken on many of the talk shows she was on. After Chastain's striptease, the most replayed moment in that game is when Scurry saved one of China's PK's. That's not an opinion.....that's a fact.
Of course! How could I have been so silly? Racism hasn't existed in America for several decades now. Silly me.
Cool discussion, folks. I've chatted about this topic with everyone from my mother to random people on the street in Pasadena during WC '99 who were upset about the media attention that Scurry received. I think it's a combination of everything--of media ignorance of goalkeeping (I went to a game today, and it's so scary how little the most vocal fans know about what makes a good play on the field, let alone a good save!), of a kind of unconscious racism, of Scurry's history on the roster, and of the fact that she hasn't been sold in the same ways that each of the Fab Five have been sold, or in Chastain's case, sold themselves: Hamm as All-American girl, Chastain as the girl who took off her shirt, Lilly as the most-capped ever, Foudy as the loudmouth soundbite captain, and Fawcett as the player with two kids. I think that most Americans, even soccer fans, remember these little factoids about the players more than they do any particular aspect of their game. And I think it's important to note that those little stories and factoids are a huge part of their marketing and popularity. I'm an occasional nut about this team, and I can't really tell you anything about Scurry, besides her general (and particularly recent) stellar level of play and the fact that she's from Dayton, MN and went to UMass. Her story just hasn't been told in the same way...the hook's just not out there for some reason. Finally, maybe part of it is the thing that I think is so cool about her...that mean-ass stare of intensity she has on the field.
Well, I hate to say it, but I don't think a few fans like us can do much to change the media's position on this issue. Its too bad, because Brianna deserves a ton on credit for all her years on the NT. Especially after coming back from fitness problems/injuries in '00 and being even better than she was before. Its not like she gets no attention at all--she has had a few halftime segments and interviews over the years. Its just nothing in comparasin to the Fab Five. I wish NBC had taken the time to interview her after the final to give her credit for her phenominal saves and just get her take on the whole thing. Mia, Joy, Julie, Lil, and Brandi are all great for the camera, but there's a sixth one thats hanging up her boots at the end of the year (probably), and I'd like to hear what she has to say sometimes.
Thats a good point. Goalkeepers, regardless of what they look like, are very under-rated simply because the average person doesn't understand what makes a good keeper.
I hope I'm not misinterpretting your post. It sounds like to me you're suggesting racism (prejudice) is a thing of the past. I think most open minded adults would say that's not the case. Racism and prejudice are still prevalent, though perhaps not as overtly. I think the color of a person's skin does play a role in today's marketing world. BUT, I'm not prepared to say how much of a role. Skin color may play as much of a role as gender. I'm not sure yet. I haven't thought it all the way through. I think a lot of times somebody who is marketing a product wants the spokesperson to be someone the potential client can relate to. I think in the case of the WUSA (who was playing into the grrrrrrll power frenzy) they were hoping to attract all the rabid young girls who play youth, rec., and club soccer. I live in San Diego. I have friends who coach at the club and collegiate level. On a real good day I can probably use five fingers to count the number of Black players I see on the field throughout the day. Most of the chicks out there were/are white. So, if I'm Gatorade or Gillette or McDonalds and I'm trying to appeal to the young female demo, I'd want somebody those young girls could relate to. Older white girls would be my first impulse. Older white girls like Mia and Brandi and Joy (Geez, Louise can we get any more Norman Rockwell as far as the names are concerned?). Conversely, if I wanted to appeal to more Black kids, I'd rush out and get a high-profile Black athlete. In the WUSA's case, however, they were few and far between. Lakeysia and Scurry come immediately to mind. Two out of how many players. And let me beat the dead horse a little more. Once I was trying to encourage my friend's U-15 girls to check out the Spirit. One of the girls had been to a game and she told her friends pooh poohed the idea. "All it is is a bunch of gavachas (sp?) running around," she said. Gavacha is kind of a Spanish derogatory remark for white girls. But when I told them they'd be playing against the Beat and that they had Maribel Dominguez, Mexico's answer to Mia Hamm, the girls were a little more interested in going to the game (they did by the way). The point is two fold (three actually) 1) To be verbally onanistic 2) To show you that prejudice, racism or whatever is a two way street and 3) To demonstrate that color does matter. If you don't give people someone to relate and look up to, you're going to have hard time winning them over or opening there pocket books. Thanks for listening.
Interesting discussion. Let's back off Bri for a moment and look at girls/women's soccer in the US. Overwhelmingly white, middle class, "feminine" (whatever players' actual sexuality). Why has women's soccer been marketed differently than basketball (at least till the advent of Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi?) White girls with ponytails (aka "girls next door") sell things. Now back to Bri. She contributed more to the Olympic win than any of the "Fab 5" (save, arguably, Lilly), she's as articulate as they are, she's as personable. She's on record saying this was her last Olympics, so she's more or less on a par with Lilly/Chastain retirement-wise. Anyone who thinks race has nothing to do with her relatively low media profile is in deep, deep denial. To put it another way: can anyone list Bri's sponsorships? Sure there are other factors. There's the sexuality questionmark. Unlike, for instance, Lakeysia Beene, who had those nice extensions. (Of course there are and have been gay NT players, but most of them manage to grow a distracting ponytail.) There's the fact that she's not part of the UNC alliance (like Siri Mullinix and Tracy Ducar, two GKs who got plenty of media face time.) There's the fact that she's not collective "best friends" with the 91ers. She may be close with them individually, but she didn't share that beach house. There's the matter of her intimidating on-field presence, without the history of off-field exposure on which to drape a feel-good grand finale story. It's dangerous to generalize too much on the basis of one example, but I'd feel a lot more sanguine about Bri's situation if I could point to more than a handful of promising black or brown or non-ponytailed elite youth players.
Why? Do you think the lack of young black players has to do with how they're marketed? Because that's the deal with Brianna. I don't see how the two are related; perhaps I'm being dense. I do agree Brianna doesn't fit the "popular girl" mold that the others do. She might not want to. I don't really know one way or the other, but I could imagine someone saying, Uh uh, that's not for me. I don't think it's racism. If the Fab 5 included her in all their whoop-de-doo, then the media would too. (Not trying to cast aspersions on the 91ers, or insinuate that they are racist, AT ALL, but it seems that if they wanted Bri included, she would be.)
Another great post. Not only because I agree with what you're saying but because of the eloquent way in which it was said. These are the times when open forums and message boards are at their best. Thanks.
The 91ers and the WNT in general are marketed as role models. They always speak of the next generation of girls as their legacy. Where does Briana fit in that picture? Look at the impact the Willams sisters or Tiger Woods have had attracting minority youth to their sports. I wish we could see Bri wielding that kind of influence in soccer. I don't think it's individual racism on the players' part at all, I think it's institutional. I'd love to see a much deeper committment to broadening outreach by US Soccer and the youth soccer organizations. But a little Briana push by Nike or Gatorade wouldn't hurt, either.
Hey, Masoo, you really got a great discussion going. You should be commended for having the gumption to bring it up. Cheers!
Can you quantify the impact of the Williams sisters or Tiger yet? Do you know the percentage of minority golfers and tennis players coming up? THere's a teenage boy named Donald Young, and a couple of girls, Jamea Jackson and Angela Haynes, in tennis. I can't think of any others. It doesn't appear that their impact has hit very hard on the elite ranks (which is what you were referencing). Now, if you want to talk grass-roots level, I know there have been many programs aimed at minority kids. Frankly, I think that's most important, since so few players make it to elite levels, anyway. If showcasing Bri helps in that area, great. This whole marketing/legacy thing -- I don't get. I'm 36, a woman, and I played soccer competitively (year round) all through middle school and high school. I played some in college, but decided not to go to a school solely to play soccer. (The choices weren't that numerous in 1985.) Maybe my community was progressive in this way, but I never felt like I had to have a cute famous female role model to justify playing soccer. Girls soccer was COOL at my school! We had ponytails and boyfriends and big stadium crowds and state titles. But I don't feel like a pioneer or role model. We were each others' role models. All the hoopla about 1999 and the Founders making it "okay" to sweat and bleed -- I don't know, I thought it was about 15 years behind the times. Why did it need marketing? Yes, it's grown immensely. But there were WAY more teams in 1998 (pre WC99) than the mid-80s. It didn't take Mia's hair and Brandi's bra to show the way to that growth. (I've been wanting to vent about that for 5 years. Thanks. )
Well, I think it's more complicated than that. There are cultural issues at play, for one thing. Many nonwhite communities haven't historically been supportive of girls in sports. That is changing, but it seems to me that white middle class girls have been playing sports for a much longer time (as I mentioned in a previous post). I think it's more likely that as minority communities get more used to the idea of the girls playing (or playing sports that are "white" sports, tennis and soccer as opposed to basketball and track), we'll see more nonwhite players. I think that the community level ultimately has more to do with it than Serena, although Serena doesn't hurt, for sure. Frankly, I don't know how many girls in pro sports "sell" much of anything. Yes, the tennis players get endorsements, but to what end? The highest-paid (endorsed) women in tennis are black. Do they "sell" more stuff? I don't know. No normal human can wear the outfits Venus and Serena wear, anyway. I'm not really arguing with you, by the way, just trying to flesh things out.