Breaking news: Men on TV seemingly don’t know how to talk about women’s sports — and it shows. Just take a look at this past week, which started with Pat McAfee, reportedly the highest-paid ESPN media personality, casually calling WNBA star Caitlin Clark a “white b*tch.” In a surprise to no one, the comments didn’t go over well, leading McAfee to quickly apologize, saying he had intended to be “complimentary” (how???). But McAfee wasn’t the only man to put his foot in his mouth. That same day, ESPN’s “First Take” co-host Stephen A. Smith got in a heated exchange with basketball analyst Monica McNutt, after he asked, “Who talks more about the WNBA … who talks about women’s sports more than ‘First Take’?” McNutt’s response: “Respectfully, with your platform, you could have been doing this three years ago if you wanted to.” (It was one of the rare occasions where Smith seemed speechless — that is, until later that day when he spent much of his daily podcast talking about her “highly offensive” comment.) 

But it’s not just the dudes at ESPN whose lack of women’s sports expertise is showing. Thanks to the exploding popularity of the WNBA (not to mention, standouts like Clark and Angel Reese) male commentators across sports media have become self-styled WNBA experts overnight — after not covering the league for decades. And they haven’t hesitated to share their…thoughts. They’ve suggested the WNBA was uninteresting up until this year. They’ve apparently amplified false drama between players. They’ve even offered unsolicited advice on how women should behave. (Thanks, Charles Barkley.) Luckily, there’s an easy solution: Hire more female sportscasters to cover the league instead. We hear there are some pretty qualified candidates out there.