Let me form my own opinion

My phone played the all familiar ESPN jingle as the silent testing room stared. I quietly check the Astros score and get back to work. Sports have been my love for as long as I can remember.

Growing up with a family full of boys and uncles that constantly talked, watched, and breathed sports, a passion for sports was destined for me. From the age of an infant, sports have been what brought me to my happy place.

My parents used to play a taped recording of a Razorback football game when I got fussy to instantly calm me down.

This year I had the privilege to be apart of the Lemke Journalism Project with the journalism program at the University of Arkansas. Mrs. Gina Shelton offered me the opportunity to participate in a round table style sports talk with three other students, male students, about NFL rookies and some of the rule changes.

While I was extremely excited for this chance, I was also nervous. Being a female in the world people often don’t take you seriously, but being a female in a primarily male dominant field, it’s hard to get people to listen to you. Going in, I felt ready. This is what I love more than almost anything, but as we sat at the table the boys began asking me to be the one person that agreed with the rule changes to make the NFL more “sissified” as one called it.

This comment angered me, I was already the only girl and now they wanted me to agree to make the sport easier so “no one gets hurt”. I wouldn’t stand for it.

I aspire to be a reporter for ESPN. Although I’m a female, I love and know sports and demand for people to at least take what I say for a valid argument.