Physical Appearance (attire/make-up)

Being that she is the first and only woman enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and that she is the only woman ever to be assigned the sideline job at a Super Bowl (this according to the American Sportscaster Asscociation), I feel that Lesley Visser is a prefect basis for comparison to today's sportscasters. While Visser still does some work today, her pioneer status among sportscasters springs from her early days as the "first really big female on the sidelines", said Paul Farhi of the Washington Post.
Here is a picture of Visser at the Super Bowl Pregame coverage in 2003 (note: according to Eric Deggans - St. Petersburg Times, the trend of young, attractive reporters hit "full force" in 2005):

lesleyvisser.com
In this image, it is important to notice how Visser is wearing a women's sport coat, and is showing off very little of her neck line. Well hello...the Super Bowl is not played in cool weather, it is played in cities like Miami, FL so she has no need for long sleeves altogether. With that said, she is showing off her "professionalism and class", something that Jamie Skerski - author of the book, From Sideline to Centerfold: The Sexual Commodification of Female Sportscasters - claims Visser and other female sideline talents strived for in their dress during the 1990's and clearly into the early part of this decade. In the image, Visser's hair is fairly short - for a woman's standards - and is held up with hair spray, a trend that, according to paulmitchell.com was considered the the #1 most popular hair style among women in their 40's. Now, I am not trying to make rude generalizations about woman, or even unsult those who are near the age of my parents, but in 2003 Lesley Visser was 50 years old, and was clearly continuing a fashion trend that saw it's 'hay-day' in the '90's.
While I should obviously not discriminate age within my research, it is now possible that I can conclude that early female sportcasters focused moreso on a classy look rather than a more 'sexy' choice.
Up next I have an image of the lovely miss Erin Andrews, one of "the most sought after female sportscasters in America" according to Jessica Collins of Street & Smith magazine's, Sports Business Daily. Collins also claims that Andrews "is obviously the most popular female sportscaster among male viewers".
Notice in this picture of Andrews from ESPN.com, that she is wearing a lot of jewlery (bracelet, earings, and a necklace). Also notice that she has her hair down; it is long and wavey, giving off a Farah Fawcett on Charlies Angels type of vibe. She is also wearing a leopard print, relatively low-cut undershirt. Leopard print is clearly a sensual and seductive style of shirt to wear and surely gives off a much more 'sexy' look rather than a more conservative, Lesley Visser resemblence.

Another aspect of these photos that I chose to examine was each woman's choice of make-up use:
Clearly, Visser is wearing heavy amounts of light cover-up to make her appear blemishless within the view of the camera. However, Andrews chose to - in this particular instance - use a light amount of darker (tanner) cover-up with blush in order to make her cheeks seem more rosie, and thus make her look younger or more youthful.

From these photographs, I can begin to see a concrete difference in terms of clothing and make-up stlyes.

If I had to guess, I would say that a majority of American's in the teens, and early 20's (people in my cohort) can watch Lesley Visser and see her as less satisfactory due to her overall physical appearance, as compared to that of the sportscasters we see much more of these days (i.e. Erin Andrews etc.).

Keep reading, the ideas are a flowin',
Blog Master Nilsen