Capital New York

Each day, the New York tabloids vie to sell readers at the newsstands on outrageous headlines, dramatic photography, and, occasionally, great reporting. Who is today's winner?

The New York Post: It's a little hard to tell just how out-of-hand things got at the Jets' New Jersey practice facility on Saturday, when Mexican TV sports correspondent Ines Sainz arrived to profile Mark Sanchez.

"During the portion of practice open to the media, Ryan and defensive-backs coach Dennis Thurman purposely overthrew passes so they would land near Sainz," the paper reported. "Later, during a locker-room availability, several players allegedly hooted and hollered when Sainz walked in."

Either way, Sainz was mortified enough to tweet out that she was "dying of embarrassment," as well as tweeting a picture of herself to show that she was not dressed provocatively. (Why she did that is unclear: the picture shows her in a pair of scandalously tight jeans—but why is that relevant either way?)

At any rate it's apparently big news because both tabs went with it for the majority of the wood. The story's a little thin, so it all hangs on the display. And here the Post gives us "OFFENSIVE LINES." Pretty nice!

Aside from a stripe at the bottom advertising the christening of the new Meadowlands Arena, that's all they wrote; so it's a very footbally day.

Daily News: The News goes with the Jets-Sainz story, too, offering "COOL YOUR JETS," also pretty nice! Not least of all because the story has a bit of an angle missing in the Post: it's a column warning Jets coach Rex Ryan that his shoot-from-the-hip management style has its drawbacks. Cool your jets, indeed, Mr. Ryan!

But the News these days can't resist putting lots of stuff on the front, and today, there's a sort of useless banner across the left on "fashion week heating up." And a stripe across the top advertising their own coverage of the new Meadowlands opening.

Observations: My brother likes to recast the intro to the television show, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" by replacing half the words with the word "sexy." As in, "In the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses are considered especially sexy. In New York City, the sexy detectives who investigate these sexy felonies are members of a sexy squad known as the Sexy Victims Unit. These are their stories."

It underlines the fact that the fascination with sexual harassment and assault is always a little bit questionable. Are stories of sexual harassment "sexy" stories?

The Post is aware of this: while the cover of the print edition reads "OFFENSIVE LINES," the deck, "Jets probed for 'sex taunts' at beauty," suggest that this crime was considered … especially sexy. The picture of Sainz on the cover has her at a three-quarter turn, bust up, all plunging necklines and backless black dress. On the web, the meta-headline (the thing that appears up in the top of the window) reads "Jets probed for 'sex taunts' at sexy female sports reporter Ines Sainz," and the headline at the top of the article reads, "Jets flagged making passes at hot reporter."

Over at the News, sobriety reigns: "New York Jets' alleged harassment of reporter Ines Sainz brings unwanted attention on eve of opener." Gary Myers writes, "The frat-house atmosphere, the boys-will-be-boys approach, veterans tying up a big-mouth rookie to the goalpost in training camp and squirting Gatorade on him - all basically harmless. But just as quickly as Ryan has gone up, he can come crashing right down if he doesn't keep his team under control."

None of this matters much: the paper that will get the most pickup will have the prettiest picture of Sainz, and the funniest headline. To my mind, "COOL YOUR JETS" and "OFFENSIVE LINES" are both pretty nice. And, yes, all the pictures of Ines Sainz are, in fact, pretty.

Winner: The New York Post.

Tom McGeveran

• Twitter
• RSS
• Email

More by this author:

• Albany reporters protest being blocked from a Republican hearing
• This was Williamsburg

• 'New York Times' gets a new politics editor: Carolyn Ryan
• Times Co.'s Mark Thompson unveils new strategic plan amid declining income