The Rutgers women’s basketball team just played in the biggest game there is. They made it to the national championship game in the Big Dance. Did you hear about their upset win over #1 Duke in the Sweet 16 last month? You probably hadn’t even heard of the team at all last week when Don Imus went and called them “nappy headed hos.”
Which is too bad. They deserve to be lauded as student athletes, but instead they are, unwittingly, part of the Imus Show. And the most recent turn? They’ve gone and agreed to meet with Imus, to “reserve judgment” on whether he should be fired untill they hear his side of the story. His side? He’s an ignorant shock jock who doesn’t deserve their energy and attention. He’s not going to give “ho a whole new definition,” as one player wondered.
What he is going to do is continue to apologize, backpeddle, and do whatever he can to save his job. The sad fact remains that Imus has gotten more attention in these past few days than the Rutgers women have gotten all season. Which in the end reinforces his behavior. The more outrageous he is, the more play he gets on the national stage.
At least now though, people are interested in women’s basketball, or at least the players, the “rough girls,” involved. The Scarlet Knights, it seems, have more backers now than ever before.
