A full-page picture of a cheesehead

Sports writers and editors don’t give a shit about women’s sports. [READER]( Like thousands of other Chicagoans, I watched on Sunday as the Sky brought a world championship to Chicago. They came from 14 points behind in the second half to beat a strong Phoenix Mercury team with the great Diana Taurasi and win their first WNBA title—and the first championship in Chicago since the 2016 Cubs. It was an especially moving moment for me because I watched the game with my grown daughters (who played basketball) and my infant granddaughter, who will also play basketball one day—I hope. So maybe I had a tear or two in my eye as I watched the rejoicing Sky players shed their own tears of jubilation. And when the game was over, I told everyone—look out for tomorrow’s Sun-Times! It will be a keeper. Because the Sun-Times is the people’s paper and no one does a sports championship better than the Bright One.[[Illustration of Ben Joravsky]]( I still have laminated copies of the front-pages of some of their Bulls championship coverage from over 20 years ago. The Sun-Times already has Annie Costabile, a great Sky beat reporter. I figured they’d add another staffer or two for the big game. Maybe bring in one of their columnists. You know, capture this Big Moment right. Probably gonna be articles about James Wade, the general/manager coach. And Candace Parker, the Naperville native who came home to win a championship. And Kahleah Copper, who won the series MVP. And an article about how it’s good to have some positive news to rally around, what with the never-ending carnage, corruption, and political strife in Chicago. Maybe even an article about Michael Alter, the owner, who was a pretty good high school basketball player back in the 70s when he was a kid growing up in Wilmette. And so it was that on Monday morning I rushed to my front porch to get the Sun-Times, home-delivered as always. I ripped it out of its plastic case and flipped it over to the back page sports section and what did I see? Candace Parker? Kahleah Copper? Coach Wade? Allie Quigley? Courtney Vandersloot? The whole team jubilantly celebrating at half court? Nope. I saw . . . Aaron Rodgers? That’s right—the hometown Sky brings a championship to Chicago and the Sun-Times dedicates its prime sports real estate to a full-page picture of a cheesehead. Uh-oh, folks, I can’t help myself. I feel a rant coming on . . . If you want to do a sociological study about how much sports editors and writers don’t give a shit about women’s sports, exhibit A would be Monday’s Bright One. They dedicated one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine freaking pages to a relatively worthless, regular-season football game in which the Packers did what they always do—humiliate the Bears. Plus, they dedicated another one, two, three, four pages to other NFL games. And two—that’s it, two—pages to the world-champion Sky. That’s correct—the out-of-town football teams got twice as much coverage as the world-champion Sky. That’s how much sports writers and editors don’t give a shit about women’s sports. By the way, the Tribune—even with all of its editorial cuts—had better coverage. At least, they had a full-page picture of Candace Parker that some kid might want to tape to his or her wall. I don’t want to hear any lame-ass excuses. I don’t want to hear about how Chicago is a Bears town. And this was Bears-Packers. And how men just don’t like women’s sports. And you gotta go for the clicks . . . blah, blah, blah. There are a lot of people in this town who care about the Sky. And maybe just maybe you’ll get a few of those readers if you write about something other than the Bears—a badly constructed and poorly-coached excuse of a team. And with that I’ll end my rant. Congratulations, Sky—thank you for bringing some much-needed good news to Chicago. [Ben Joravsky [signature]]( Chicago Reader's 50th anniversary giveaway Give a little, Get a lot Celebrate with us by winning something for you! There's plenty of prizes to go around. 50 Days of Reader Giving runs until November 19. Today we’re giving away a Chicago Reader swag bag! All members of the Chicago Reader's Reader Revolution membership program are automatically entered to win for the entire giveaway. [Become a member]( Honorée Fanonne Jeffers’s novel, [The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois]( Taryn Allen’s ["Long live the classifieds!"]( Ben Joravsky’s ["The long haul"]( [Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa]( on the Latino caucus meeting with Mayor Lightfoot [David Faris]( deconstructs David Shor, the pollster/strategist loved by Dems [Alderwoman Jeanette Taylor]( talks about her battle with COVID [The Ben Joravsky Show]( [Listen to The Ben Joravsky Show]( EPISODE 7 IS OUT TODAY Listen to "Halloween is queer Christmas" [here]( or wherever you get your podcasts. [October ushers in bride of Frankenstein story at First Folio]( Joseph Zettelmaier talks about his brand as a classic horror playwright. by [Bridgette M. 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