Sunday saw an LSU official backtrack the wording of a football season promotion ahead of the team's opener that previously read "females" who won the contest would not receive sideline passes.
"We made a mistake and it's been corrected. Everyone is welcome to participate in the contest," LSU senior associate athletic director Robert Muson said on Twitter.
We made a mistake and it’s been corrected. Everybody is welcome to participate in the contest. https://t.co/owCUzjTkha
— Robert J. Munson (@RobertJMunson) August 25, 2019
The "Dream Weekend" is a bid for the opener against Georgia Southern to stay at the team hotel, have meals with the team and includes sideline passes. The original promotion closed with a paragraph reading, "Females are able to participate in all activities leading up to the game. Sideline passes excluded."
The language has since been deleted. (But here it is) pic.twitter.com/K5VkvTmPFh
— Katie Gwinn Hewitt (@kfgwinning) August 25, 2019
The response on social media was swift, drawing comments from women in sports media, including ESPN's Sarah Spain.
No women allowed on the sideline.
— Katie Gwinn Hewitt (@kfgwinning) August 25, 2019
I’m open to hearing the explanation on this one... https://t.co/HZvB3ifTct
— Sarah Spain (@SarahSpain) August 25, 2019
"females" lmao https://t.co/7rcdmWWzaE
— Natalie Weiner (@natalieweiner) August 25, 2019
Love 2 b excluded for being female https://t.co/A4qe6719bq
— Marisa Ingemi (@Marisa_Ingemi) August 25, 2019
Deleted because so many women (especially those of us in this industry) were outraged? LSU basically said the last four years of my career didn’t matter because I couldn’t be on the sideline of a football game. 😡 https://t.co/OZnGj4X6xi
— Jessica Roswell (@jessroswell) August 25, 2019
Who in their right might thinks this is ok?
— Brandee Britt (@beebritt34) August 25, 2019
“Females are able to participate in all activities leading up to the game. Sideline passes excluded.”
Try again, LSU. Try again. https://t.co/1NoBnm9aiK