Film Room: Sterger Day Two
Former Jets Game Day Hostess continues to talk to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos about the Brett Faver sexting scandal and how it’s affected her family.
At the end of this clip, Sterger notes that she wants to get her life back, and get back to work, get back to the real her. I don’t know exactly what to think of that. Is the real her the one that poses in Maxim and Playboy? Is it working as a member of the sports media? Is it taking softball mailbag questions about what her turn-ons and turn-offs are for SI.com?
It’s a fair request that anyone might make, but sadly it’s doubtful that she’ll ever recover the trajectory that her career seemed to be on back in 2007-2008. In her case though, I know she’s the victim of the Favre harassment, but unfortunately, she’s lessened the impact to the public by becoming a victim of her own bad choices since Favre sexted her in the first place. I wrote about how she (sadly) did herself a disservice by not immediately reporting it (8th, 20th, 21st graphs) last fall.
As far as we’ve read in the original August Deadspin story, and had confirmed by others, this was something akin to a cocktail story that Jenn liked to regale others with, that is until AJ at Deadspin got a hold of it. So in my mind, it comes back to some very poor judgement on her part. If her paramount goal was that she really didn’t want this getting out, she shouldn’t have mentioned it, especially to someone like AJ, (whom we respect, but isn’t really squeamish about such lines, or burning such bridges on a juicy story) and instead actually taken her friends terrible advice to just “be quiet” about the matter. While harassment is no joke, at the very least if she wasn’t recounting her tale of sexting, then she’d at least not be “sabotaging” her own career.
Last fall, I requested the Jets stated sexual harassment policies, and I’ve never received them. Again, as I wrote yesterday, I do think that there is or there has been systemic sexual harassment issues inside the Jets organization, and as far as I can tell, the Jets are more concerned with treating the symptoms than the actual cause. I wish it wasn’t the case that I was writing about this type of stuff about my favorite team, but I can’t willfully ignore it either.
12 Responses to Film Room: Sterger Day Two
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One last comment on this.
The NFL (or someone)should force Farve this sheevy, D’bag to settle this fairly out of court so this thing goes away!!!
Someone should tell this girl that she chose a career in the “big leagues” and BIG press (good and bad)comes with the territory!!! Her and her family should wake up and smell the coffee!!
Like they say: “If you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen”!!!
If she just wanted “a job” tell her to put on a pair of skates and go to work at a fast food car hop!!
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Can’t stand hearing about this anymore. Such a dead issue and she’s the one beating it to death. Her career is getting flushed down the toilet right before her eyes. If she wants her life back maybe she shouldn’t go on GMA rehashing the whole ordeal.
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Bassett,
I know the Jets’ organization’s sexual harassment policy is a soapbox issue for you, but remember, the alleged “harassment” or “hostile work environment” must be “unwelcome” and therein (pardon the pun) lies the rub. Sterger and her fellow traveller, Ines Sainz, rely upon their sexually charged personas and, in Sainz’s case, out-and-out sexual banter. If a “victim” asks about the sex lives about her co-workers, describes her sex life to her co-workers, and generally engages is the type of behavior she claims is harassment, then the “victim” cannot claim that the sexual advances were “unwelcome.” I feel bad for Sterger and I think the Jets acted like overly-hormonal teenagers around Sainz, but there are two sides to this story and Sterger’s failure to demand a work environment free off harassment by immediately going to Jets management casts aspersions on her claims. Sure, she would claim that she was afraid for her job, but if the “Favre hit on me and sexted me a pic of his junk” tale was a favorite “war story” of hers to tell the lads, well, to quote the bard: “methinks the lady doth protest too much.” There are thousands of women that suffer daily because of systemic sexual harassment and, IMO, their plight is cheapened when the Jen Stergers and Ines Sainzes of the world claim that sexual advances were “unwelcome” despite creating public personas based on their sexuality or sexual banter or both. And, by the way, the female Jets employee on “Hard Knocks” that negotiated a great deal with the magician and Tannenbaum quipped that she should negotiate the Revis deal did not seem to be suffering in a systemic hell-hole of harassment.
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SD:
Great point. However although the Jets my not be a “..systemic hell-hole of harassment”, corporate image and acceptable code of behavior flows from the head down, right?
I hold Woody and Tannenbaum resposible for NOT making it explicitly clear waht is what is NOT acceptable….NOT the receipient of that behavior!!!
If you cross that (gray) line….you are still guilty !!!!
BTW, something tells me that Tannebaum enjoys being on the fringe of all this!!!
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Hank,
I consider the Sainz issue more of a one-off error in judgment by the Jets’ players. The Sterger matter is more like a “hostile work environment” claim. But, it is as important for the employee to report inappropriate behavior as it is for the organization to discourage it. Here, Sterger admits that she never reported it and the alleged harrasser is a Jet employee, who joined the organization just a few weeks before the “incidents.” So, I just don’t think that there’s enough public information to conclude that the Jets organization has not had a “top down” sexual harassment policy. All we really know is that Sterger did not report the “harassment” in a timely manner. Plus, as a civil law issue, there’s no concept of “guilt,” only liability and holding an employer liable for sexual harassment is only possible if a policy was not in place or was not EEOC compliant in some way. I know you don’t like Tanny, but it’s very hard to believe that the Jets did not have a bona fide sexual harassment policy in place. I’m willing to bet that the Flight Crew and female staff members of the Jets all would rate the Jets with high marks for fostering an appropriate and EEOC compliant workplace. And, fwiw, the massage therapist and Sterger claims all derive from Favre’s acts…hardly a systemic problem. Sounds like a rogue employee situation to me.
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Bent says: FWIW – it seemed like insiders felt Rex was most responsible for allowing the Sainz thing to happen.
Of course, he wasn’t around for the Favre thing.
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SD:
All true. My only question is : where is Farves wife with all this??. She is no where to be found!!!
Oh yeah, she must be too busy running his charity foundations while he is out “playing” around!!!
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I’m looking forward to seeing her on “Dancing with the Stars”, “Celebrity Apprentice”, and especially scantily clad in the Celebrity Survivor [Florham} series…
… can you say ‘Gary Busey with breasts’?
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Wow, two days on this story. I’m glad to see everything else in the world is OK.
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you know not for nothing but the is another botched attempt at a women trying to an easy pay day or her 15 minutes of fame. Ms Sterger but if you didnt care about money or fame an wanted this to just go away you would not have held onto the text messages or Ims or emails he sent you… An now your crying because you cant find work or you cant do this or that cuz your emotionally hurt, give me a break, by you saving these messages you done that to yourself, but before you guys think that im defending farve im not. was farve wrong Aboslutly, do i think harrasing a woman who isnt interested ok Hell no……But it takes two to tango you were both wrong so cut the crap and movie on and stop trying to tarnish someone reputation. enough is enough now both of you do us a favor and stop brining down the jets name OK
Did anyone see Norm Macdonald’s show last night on Comedy Central? It’s pretty funny and he did a bit on the Jets (Sanchez & Cro) too. Would like to see a youtube clip of that if it’s out there.