Majority of sports talk shows are male dominated with a huge audience outdone by male viewers. However, that is not the case for Devyn Waters, who hosts The Pink Jersey Show for OwlTv. 

The Pink Jersey Show is a sports podcast for girls to learn and understand more about sports. The podcast has Devyn Waters as host and Arielle Harvey, as co-host targeting the main audience for the girls.

Arielle Harvey, a senior majoring in Multimedia Studies with a concentration in journalism is the co-host for The Pink Jersey Show. She says that what makes the podcast different from the others is that it is able to reach a specific audience that is catered toward girls and hosted by girls.

“This is one is for the girls and by the girls. I think that is where the outreach is different and that is where the content is also different,” Harvey said. 

Waters’s idea for starting the podcast was something that she did in a spur of the moment, but has always been exposed to sports when growing up. And even when she would bring her friends to games, she would have to explain the game to them. Until one of her friends mentioned the idea to her about starting a podcast. 

“I’ve always grown up around sports, but then my friends haven’t, so when we go to games they would be confused and I would find myself literally breaking it down for them,” she said. “I’d find myself trying to explain it to them in words they actually understand, and one of my friends was like, ‘You need to actually put this somewhere because I’m not the only person who doesn’t understand this. There’s probably like a thousand other girls who don’t quite understand what a first down is’. I was like ok let me figure out where I can put this, so they can actually get it. And that’s where OwlTv came in.”

She emphasizes that what makes The Pink Jersey Show different from the other sports podcasts being shown on OwlTv, is the lightheartedness that it brings to the podcast as well being girl-centered. She also explains that it’s not your typical masculine radio podcast that is shown when it comes to sports podcast that talks about football, basketball, etc. She says that with sports already being male-dominated throughout the sports podcasts and radio shows, it’s not something new because guys already are accustomed to having that when girls don’t and it’s not easy to follow through if not broken down into simpler words. 

“It’s lighthearted and girl-centered. It takes out the masculine aspects of male-dominated sports field. There are women basketball teams, baseball gots softball, but when it comes to these male dominated fields of sports, you don’t get the authentic girl talk version of it,” Waters said. “It’s easy to understand if you really sit down and take the time to understand, but it’s not necessarily what I would consider understandable for girls. It’s not relatable for us in any way shape or form. Guys have sports and that’s all they ever have, but girls don’t necessarily get it, so taking it and breaking it down in terms like shopping, hair, makeup. Terms that like girly girls can understand, but also still relate to overall sports.” 

Sports wasn’t something new to Waters when it comes to being part of a family that did sports. When her dad who played collegiate and professional football, and also coached and played football and basketball, it wasn’t a surprise to her to start this podcast. She recalls a time when growing up, she would go and watch her dad practice or do drills instead of going to summer camps. With Waters going to watch practices or workouts and being exposed to the sports, she grew a love for it. 

“My dad, he coached and played basketball and football. And he coached almost all of my sports teams. And I had siblings, cousins who all played sports, but I vividly remember probably being three or four and my dad was coaching football at the time. And he would take me and my siblings to practice with him, but my siblings stopped going at some point, but everyday I would wake up and I would go with him to practice,” she said. “It was summer workouts I would get up, and instead of going to summer camp, I got up and was on the football field from ages 4 to 13, I was sitting out there: listening to him call plays, watching him do drills, and I really just kind of got a love for it.”  

Not only did Waters love watching the practices or workouts, but she also grew a love for the games too. 

“Every Friday night, regardless of what I had going on, I knew there was football Friday, and were gonna go watch football. We watched football Friday, games on Saturday, we watched games on Sunday, and we watched film every other day of the week. That was all that was on the TV – whether it was a sports talk show, or a game we were always watching. That really just kind of shaped my love for all the games.” Waters said. 

Eventually, she started to venture off in doing sports on her own with the love she had for the sports. Instead of watching cartoons or tv shows, she found herself always watching games: whether that was football, basketball, or baseball. 

“I grew up around these sports, so sitting down and realizing, ‘ok I grew up around this, but I never actually just watched it on my own.’ And realizing that’s really what I did. I didn’t watch cartoons, I didn’t watch reality TV. I watched football, I watched football, I watched basketball, I was watching baseball games, I was spending thousands of dollars to watch games, because that is just what I loved to do,” she said. “I loved the atmosphere of all sports, and just being part of fanbases is like the biggest thing for me, it’s like a second family.” 

Along with her love for sports, came Waters’s dad, Willie Offord who had a love for coaching. It all came down to him playing collegiate and professional football. He played collegiately at the University of Carolina and professionally for the Minnesota Vikings for a short period of time before his injury. She remembers all the work and preparation that needed to be done in order to make it possible for him. Without even realizing, that as her and her siblings got older, that with their love for sports, their dad’s dream, would also be their dream as well. 

“My dad played collegiate and he played pro for a very short time, he played for the Vikings and that was short good thing before he was injured,” Waters said. “It was always a really big thing for us because we spent so much time helping him chase his dream, and then we just kind of got older and realized that his dream would eventually became our dream to just love sports.” 

With The Pink Jersey Show podcast being girl-centered with two girls hosting, it is also produced by girls as well. 

Briana Lugo Tinoco, a senior majoring in Multimedia studies with a film concentration and a minor in History, is one of the producers for The Pink Jersey Show and also is one of the Production Coordinators for OwlTv. She says that with the podcast it has a different concept because not only does it teach the sport in simpler terms, but in the very first episode, she gives us a brief synopsis from Harvey, and how she gives tips and advice on how to be a good fan for the sport that your watching. 

“I think it’s different because it’s not only teaching you about sports and how it’s played and what not, but it also teaches you how to be a good fan. In episode 1, Arielle breaks down specifically how to be a good fan, especially at FAU. And one of the things she mentions is that football is for everyone. It does not exclude race, gender, none of that, it includes us all,” Lugo Tinoco said.

When starting a sports talk show that is produced by girls and girl-dominated, she says that Waters and Harvey have created a space for women’s in sports as well as representation for Black women because the whole show, including production is done by women of color. With hopes that this podcast will continue after she graduates and that the legacy continues on. 

“It feels good, I feel like Devyn has a created a space, and Arielle too has created for like women in sports especially you know representing Black women of course,” Lugo Tinoco said. “Majority of the girls that are in our crew, even like the people filming are Black women. We basically started what could possibly be a legacy, I hope it continues on afterwards. Because I leave this semester, also Tayia one of the producers is leaving too, so we’re going to leave it up to Devyn and Arielle to keep it going.” 

Tayia Lombardi, a senior majoring in Multimedia Studies with a concentration in Film and New Media with a double major in Theater Studies, is also one of the producers for The Pink Jersey Show. 

Lombardi has been working with OwlTv for a little over two years now, and has produced shows for OwlTv before. What led her to produce this podcast is that she was always a big fan of sports. And knows that sports isn’t something that a lot of people find easy to understand as she shares that when she takes her friends to sporting events, she too would find herself explaining the sport to them. And when the podcast was brought up as an idea, she thought it was a good idea too. 

“I’ve always been a big sports fan, and I know sports isn’t something that comes easy to a lot of people,” Lombardi said. “Especially since I like taking my friends to sporting matches and everything, and I know I have to explain the rules to them from time to time, so the idea of having the podcast or video series that would help properly explain everything it was like a no brainer for me.”

This would be her first time producing a podcast, as she had experience with producing shows for OwlTv, but she’s confident, excited, and a little nervous since Tayia is used to being hands on whether that is being behind the camera or editing,  rather than being on the business side of things like pre-planning and making sure that everything is running smoothly.

“I’m confident in it, I’m excited for it, I’m definitely a little nervous because it’s weird being on the business side of it making sure everything is up and running because I’m usually more on the immediate production side of it. So it is definitely a little different than what I’m used to, but I’m still beyond excited and happy to be working on it,” Lombardi said. 

You can watch and listen to episodes of The Pink Jersey Show hosted by Waters and Harvey, every Friday and occasionally every Thursday on Youtube.