NFL's New Spokesperson Marisa Miller: New Face or Body of NFL?

Marisa Miller has just been named the new spokesperson for the NFL. She is a former Victoria's Secret model. According to CBS Sports, Miller is very excited about her new post with the NFL because she grew up watching football.

Miller will not be replacing anyone; a new position appears to have been designed just for her. She will be the face of American football when she promotes the San Francisco 49ers and the Denver Broncos game that will take place in London. This will be one of her first tasks as the new NFL spokesperson. This game is scheduled for Oct. 31.

New face of football maybe, but it does not appear that Miller has been picked for this job just for her face; it is most likely the entire package.

Miller is a lingerie model and her expertise in football is "watching it on TV while she was growing up." Is the NFL going for sex appeal when they send Miller across the pond to pump everyone up for American football coming to town?

According to a study done by the Social Issues Research Center, the majority of football fans in Britain are men. Even the women acknowledge that football is considered more for the male gender when it comes to being a fan, according to SIRC.

The NFL sending a lingerie model over to London to get the fans ready for "American football" sounds like a great marketing plan, but it is also a contradiction with recent events here in the states.

Recently, Ines Sainz, a sports reporter for the NY Jets, was uncomfortable when the Jets players and a few of the staff "made jokes and played games" when she entered the locker room, according to The New York Daily News.

This launched an investigation by the NFL, and they called it inappropriate behavior for these professional football players. Basically what it sounds like was high school-type flirting going on with the Jets towards Sainz. She denied feeling threatened or in harm's way at any time during the episode, according to the NY Daily News.

Now that the NFL is sending a lingerie model to work up the football game in Britain, the question of sex appeal does come to mind. If it was really about a spokesperson who was very well informed in NFL football games, wouldn't they send a retired, noted-name player as someone to spark interest in the game? Someone who is well informed on the plays, statistics, and who had some first-hand knowledge of inside stories to share with the people of London?

Sexy sells, and because the majority of football fans in England are men, \the NFL's decision was very smart for marketing, but it also has a feel of a double standard.

Reference: CBS Sports, SIRC.org, The New York Daily News