I want to make this clear at the very start: Coach Katie Sowers of the San Francisco 49'ers did not make this claim herself, it was her sister that brought it to the front page via her Instagram account. I think that it is very apparent by Sower's staying completely silent about this, as have the rest of the 49'ers staff, that she doesn't think it is a big deal nor does she care to make a big stink about it. Someone is going to though and it could end up causing a rift in the company.
The problem that has arisen is that Katie's sister (who probably got the information from Katie in the first place, since her sister, Liz, wasn't even there)
The huge discrimination that took place goes like this: Katie was the only full-time member of the coaching staff that was not assigned a seat in the first class section of the team plane, she was back in the dreaded economy class that I presume most of us view as "the only class they ever get."
Now since both Katie and the rest of the 49ers staff are remaining very quiet about this I think we can presume that they have all agreed that they do not want to bring attention to this. I don't know anything about Katie Sowers. I want to believe that she is employed there because she is good at her job. There is a tiny misogynistic part of me that believes that at least part of the reason why she is there is publicity, but I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt. I do know that once social justice warriors get a hold of something they are very unlikely to relent though.
I really don't think that there is really any chance that this seat assignment was meant as disrespect or trying to not allow Katie into the "boys section of the plane" or to even slight her at all. If you look at the entire coaching staff, which is huge, Katie is quite near the bottom of level of overall importance as the "Offensive Assistant." There are also only 3 other people on the staff overall that have less experience than her. So before any SJW out there decides to blow their top over this could we at least entertain the notion that this might be a draw of seniority and it is just a coincidence that on this particular trip that it was simply Katie's "turn?"
It is this sort of reaction to anything that can even be remotely seen as sexist that leads to organizations not wanting to include women in the roster at all. I think if Katie is smart and the 49ers are smart, that they will do one of two things: They will either ignore this altogether or explain that it is simply a luck of the draw. Or maybe they could just make a new elite class and let Katie be the only one that has access to it, or let her fly the plane... that would probably work but then her sister would just accuse the organization of being patronizingly sexist.
You just can't win with some people and the fact that this story made major news is a bit disappointing to me as it says a lot about how whiny the general population is capable of being about anything, especially on social media.