DANA JACOBSON

I was watching "Real Time With Bill Maher" on Friday evening. I don't always agree with Bill's points (and after I read how he treated Jim "Boo Yah" Cramer on his previous show, as recounted in the terrific tome "Confessions of a Street Addict", I like him less) but I love the debate that his show generates.

Anyway, Friday evening's panel consisted of three male guests: Bob Costas, who was excellent, Jonah Goldberg, and Matthew Dowd,whom I don't know much about. The topic was Hillary versus Barack (isn't it always these days?) and whether it's easier to elect a black president (though he's only 50% black) than a female president (though she's only 50% fem--oh, c'mon, you knew that joke was coming).

So Dowd says, in defense of Hillary, "Sexism is worse than racism in this country."

To which Maher, quickly, astutely and correctly countered, "Not if you're hot."

Which brings us to Dana Jacobson of ESPN. Yesterday Charlie Weis held a press conference at Notre Dame about issues beyond his recent signees. I don't know who asked the question of him, but I applaud the writer who did so. And, honestly, I didn't think for one moment that Weis would reply as candidly as he did. This was the exchange:

Q: I believe you were a participant in the roast for "Mike & Mike", and there was a situation involving one of the ESPN employees. If you could, offer your take on that situation, what transpired that night.

COACH WEIS: Are you referring to Dana (Jacobson)?

Q. Dana Jacobson, yes.

COACH WEIS: Well, I'll just say three things, okay. I was both personally and professionally offended by her comments. And if the situation were reversed, and that were me saying them, two things would have happened. I would have been the lead story on SportsCenter, and I would have been fired. But other than that, the University has issued an official response, and I think it's best to leave it at that.

Strong words. And true. As a Catholic and a Notre Dame alum, I don't want to see Jacobson fired. However, I would like a little less double-standardry to exist. Granted, the event was a "comedy" roast, though as we've seen through the years by watching the ESPYs, ESPN anchors should refine their comedy to snarky remarks while showing game highlights. And Jacobson, from all accounts, was loopity-loop-looped (or at least I hope she was).

But, as my good friend Marty once said, Catholicism and obesity are the last two accepted targets of bigotry. And I'm not even sure the latter is so much any more. Don Imus makes a joke, albeit a completely mean and unnecessary one, about the Rutgers' women's basketball team. And he gets canned. Mel Gibson says some horribly anti-Semitic things (while looped) and he becomes a pariah in Hollywood. Which is not to excuse what he said at all.

But Dana Jacobson, a relatively high-visibility on-air ESPN personality, says, "F___ Notre Dame! F___ Touchdown Jesus!", and ESPN barely reports it. And certainly the national media focused on it, and on Jacobson, far less than they did on Kelly Tilghman and the "lynch" comment.

I'm not in the business of measuring degress of bigotry. But I do know that writing or saying, "(Blank) (Said Race, Said Religion, Said Ethnic Group)" is probably going to get me fired. But then I'm a white male. And you know what? "F___ white males!"

(So yes, I'm the first AWM.)

Yes, ESPN suspended her for one week--which is the same amount of time they once allegedly suspended Neil Everett for stepping on Chris Berman's toes with the "He's with leather" quip (See? ESPN anchors ARE funny when they don't work blue and keep the joke related to a highlight). And yes, ESPN did report the story (briefly) on a "First Take" news update. But considering the reasons why former ESPN on-air personalities such as Brett Haber and Harold Reynolds were fired, it's a little inconsistent that Jacobson received such a free pass.

Luckily, we're Catholics. We forgive. So I imagine that some of the people whom Jacobson comes across in the hallways in Bristol, for example, Mike Golic and Lou Holtz, have accepted her apology and moved on. But Coach Weis is correct. Had he said anything even remotely close to that, in the same setting, every last commenter on Deadspin and The Big Lead and EDSBS would be riffing on what a fat jerk he is.

(Ironically enough, the Deadspin commenters, after first acknowledging how poorly Jacobson behaved, then did an about-face about some ultra-conservative Catholic leader using this episode to his advantage. It was as if they were just looking for an excuse not to have to side with Notre Dame or Weis on this one.)

Anyway, it was a bad episode for Jacobson. And perhaps the graceful thing for her to have done is to have resigned. In order to demonstrate how truly contrite she is. But I guess her job is more important to her than her integrity. And I wonder if she ever would have apologized had the video not been released.

The lesson. As my 8th grade math teacher Mike Gilligan once shared with us, "It only takes ten seconds to throw away a lifetime of honor." That's worth remembering. Especially in an age when most everyone owns a cell phone that can record video.