By Matt Wilhalme
Los Angeles Times.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday introduced a new way to garner the attention of more female NFL fans: make them angry.
The “RED” women’s movement initiative appears to have been made in good faith, with the Bucs seeking new ways to connect with their fan base and tap into new revenue streams, but it immediately plays into old stereotypes.
In inviting women to a special event featuring a talk from General Manager Jason Licht, the Buccaneers help women learn to incorporate the team into their other “lifestyle interests, such as tailgating and home entertaining.”
That part, of course, comes after they receive “game-day style tips” from local experts.
Not only do they generalize, they also get insulting.
The “RED Term of the Week” is “Play Clock,” in which the team explains in simple terms that “during the course of a game, announcers, fans, players and coaches will likely use the term ‘play clock’ more than once.”
Oh, interesting.
What’s more, “the play clock actually has nothing to do with the game clock (the 60 minutes of play divided up into four, 15-minute quarters) at all.”
The more you know, right?
This amusing effort to recruit women as die-hard Bucs’ fans follows Tampa Bay’s drafting of Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston, whose career as a Seminole was marked by an accusation of rape, a two-quarter suspension for yelling an inappropriate sexual phrase on campus and that whole crab leg incident.
