Baywatch Wyse crack leaves Joe Brolly all at sea

You're given 140 characters to express your thoughts in a tweet, but Joe Brolly only needed 28 (including the spaces - which he rarely employs when he's punditing) to get himself in to a bit of bother. Again. On learning that Dubliner Rachel Wyse had been chosen to front Sky Sport's GAA coverage this summer, he typed:

“SKY = TV3 plus Baywatch babe”.

The smoke rising from the Twitter Machine in the aftermath was probably visible from Mars, although some seemingly intent on defending Wyse went about it in an odd enough kind of way. Like the Aidan person who tweeted his, um, support, dismissing Brolly as a “know all”, and then advising Wyse to use YouTube to get to know ‘the players’ names, positions and how good they are’.

‘You have tweeter pals like me ask us even you’ll learn,’ he said, which was nice.

Back on Brolly’s timeline, someone sent him a photo of what was claimed to be Wyse in a swim suit, and the resulting chest-bumping might have even made Andy Gray’s cheeks sizzle. Well, okay, maybe not.

Brolly (who went on to declare: "SKY's entrenched beautiful anchor formula is shamelessly sexist, designed for their overwhelmingly male audience"): "She doesn't look like she ever stood under a dropping ball on the edge of the square with Sean Marty Lockhart. "

Perhaps not, but as a former international showjumper, Wyse has handled bigger beasts than Sean Marty Lockhart, and would most probably look upon Brolly as My Little Pony.

“Nothing to do with the girl personally,” he said of the 29-year-old woman, “never heard of her until now. Not a showjumping fan.”

Sure, which of us is, but before suggesting someone is all lipstick and boobs, you’d at least Wikipedia her:

"She moved into sports presenting with the Show Jumping Ireland Premier Series in 2008 & 2009 on Sky Sports, Horse & Country TV and TG4, and was the face of Leinster Rugby's online television channel Leinster Rugby TV. Wyse then became a co-presenter on Ireland's only domestic motoring show. She now works full-time in 2013 as a Sky Sports News Anchor. Rachel has filmed special reports with Olympic boxer Katie Taylor, Irish International Rugby Player Brian O'Driscoll and Manchester United player Juan Mata as well as reporting from the London Olympics 2012 and Wimbledon."

A decent CV, that. But, apparently, it counts for nothing because she’s annoyingly beautiful, and therefore must be vacuous, in a “titillating” way, as the Brolly man suggested was Sky’s motive for hiring attractive women.

So, if you want to earn respect as a female sporting telly presenter, over-eat, develop acne, grow a big belly, and never shave your armpits. At which point, of course, Brolly’s mates would tweet a whole heap of ugliness.

The lesson? The ‘girls’ just can’t win.

At least Brolly repented, after his chest-bumping fest.

“Rachel, I apologise for the remark about a “Baywatch babe”. It was not meant to be personal but it was crass & wrong of me.”

Fair enough, hats off.

And it’s true, Sky is not in the habit of employing female presenters who wouldn’t look out of place on a catwalk, which is a bit maddening for those of us who would be escorted from the building by security if we ever tried to tread on one, but the moral of the story: being a beautiful woman doesn’t necessarily mean you’re as thick as a brick and sporty-clueless.

What Rachel Wyse endured this week is typical enough, even from men who reckon they’re ‘new’. But hopefully she missed it all, too busy looking at YouTube to see how boys kick balls and wallop sliotars.

Complicated stuff for a girl.