Written by The Culture in Sports podcast recently had Sam Marchiano on as a guest. Sam Marchiano is an award-winning content creator, equality advocate, adjunct assistant professor at NYU’s Tisch Institute of Global Sport, and is recognized for the crucial role allyship played in facing gender issues as female sports reporter. She has overseen communications, marketing, and league relationships in professional sports for professional sports leagues and television networks.
Sam Marchiano discussed many important topics in depth during her time on the Culture in Sports Podcast with Wesley Livingston and Mike Scaramella. It started with the topic of baseball, where we learned more about how baseball’s culture can adapt and change. We also learned how baseball has changed, ways that it can change, how baseball can adapt to modern day sports culture.
But what was most important was not that she was just speaking about baseball, but she was really speaking about all sports and levels, and society as a whole. And Sam further discusses how the owners and leagues are the ones who dictate the culture in sports. This culture is inclusive or exclusive of people, ideas, and values solely on what the owners and leagues desire, not based on current society, composition of fans, or even the athletes on their teams. In this culture, athletes, coaches, and staff still hide who they really are and what they believe in. People in sports are still unable to be their authentic selves, which extremely restricts communication and trust, ability to build cohesive teams, and enable athletes to perform at peak levels of performance.
Sam discussed that sports leagues, owners, and others are taking steps forward and some of those steps are faster than others. There are team owners, coaches, and leagues that are more inclusive as others but until the culture changes to be more inclusive, athletes will still not be able to be their true selves and all fans will not be able to see people that are like them on the field, in the pool, on the court, mat, or pitch.