Rachel Nichols was trending this weekend, through no fault of her own.
On Friday night, Paul Pierce forgot to keep his fun private, and streamed his weekend shenanigans on Instagram for all of his followers to see. The Celtics great was at a debauched poker party, and strippers were seemingly in attendance.
There's no problem here with that: Pierce is a grown man, and can do whatever he wants in his free time. But commenters started asking Pierce about the whereabouts of Rachel Nichols, with whom he works on ESPN's NBA coverage.
In due time, Nichols was trending on Twitter.
The episode prompted another ESPN reporter, Jenna Laine, to call out misogyny she's experienced working in sports. "Seeing 'Rachel Nichols' trending and I'm immediately reminded of all the bullsh— women in our biz continue to have to deal with...from FANS," she tweeted. You guys want to know why a lot of us aren't as active on social media and don't engage as much as our male counterparts? Sh— like that."
Laine is correct on this point: there's no way commentators would start barraging Pierce with catcalls about a male colleague during an Instagram Live session. Nichols is an accomplished journalist and one of the best interviews in sports TV. And yet, she's apparently a sexualized object to many.
Good on Laine for speaking out.
