The camera is notorious for adding 10 pounds. Even elite athletes who spend endless hours in the gym and carefully calculate every bite of their diet aren’t immune from unflattering camera angles that exaggerate a person’s weight. There’s been a trend in recent years of reporters posting unflattering photos of NFL players along with even more unflattering comments. Kelvin Benjamin, Eddie Lacy, and most recently, Tony Romo are just some the athletes recently finding themselves on the receiving end of weight criticism. These reporters, who sometimes have millions of followers on social media, are walking on thin ice when it comes to societal double standards regarding gender equality. Maybe reporters feel more comfortable commenting on a male athlete’s weight than a female athlete’s weight because there isn’t as much public backlash that comes with a seemingly innocent poke at a person’s weight. But why is that?
Most recently on July 31st, Jim Rome, host of The Jim Rome Show, tweeted a photo of Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo running mid-stride at training camp. The photo, taken and originally tweeted by Dallas Morning News’ Jon Machota, appeared to show a heftier Romo who may have indulged a bit past what his usually strict diet allows. It wasn’t this photo that’s what’s upsetting- it’s the fact that a second photo taken by the same photographer just a stride later wasn’t as widely circulated by the media. This second photo portrayed a much more accurate representation of Romo- so much so, that when placed side-by-side, they hardly seem like photos of the same person.
Rome didn’t stop at only tweeting the photo- he went one step further and added “Has to be a bad angle or extra rib protection, right? Otherwise, good thing NFL doesn’t test for Krispy Kreme.” His post prompted his followers to retweet the photo and put in their two cents, too.
What might be considered an example of cyber-bullying to some, Rome’s comments could serve as an example of societal double standards. Imagine for a minute that Rome, a well-known radio show host with 1.42 million Twitter followers, said the same thing about a professional female athlete who had appeared to gain more than a few pounds during her offseason. His comments probably wouldn’t be very well received and some readers and Tweeters might even demand Rome make an apology.
But as of today, August 21st, the tweet has yet to be deleted. Romo appeared to brush off the criticism saying “I think I’ve gone through enough criticism at different times in my career that that’s the least of my worries. Granted, that if I was that big, I think we’d have to have some talks. I think I’m going to be alright.”
Romo might not have been bothered by the criticism, but that doesn’t mean every athlete can disregard comments about their weight just as easily. The media has an unbelievably large influence in shaping society’s ideals, especially when it comes to body image. And although the photo was a misleading representation of Romo’s actual figure, it doesn’t change the fact that people still responded negatively to it. If commenting on a woman’s weight gain is considered off-limits by most, why should commenting on a man’s weight gain be any more acceptable?
