23 Grand Slam titles, 72 Women’s Tennis Association titles and four Olympic gold medals. Serena Williams has continued to be a role model, not just for female athletes but all women. Her consistent ability to break convention and push boundaries is a constant inspiration.

Tom Brady is the most accomplished player in the most popular league in the U.S., making it easy to be known as the Greatest Of All Time. With seven Super Bowl rings and five Super Bowl MVPs, and with so many nicknames derived from his clutch factor, Brady has a resume that is more than GOAT worthy. 

In the nearest equivalent to the NFL, Serena Williams has 23 Major titles to Tom Brady’s 7 titles. Williams has 33 such appearances, while Brady has 10 respectively. Williams ended the season as the number one ranked player (MVP) 5 times, while Brady has won 3 of the sort. In the final critical stat, Williams has won 358 games in Finals sets, whereas Tom Brady has 230 career wins. 

A study by ESPN ranked football the third most difficult skill set and tennis the seventh. Those making up the study consisted of “a group made up of sports scientists from the United States Olympic Committee, of academicians who study the science of muscles and movement, of a star two-sport athlete, and of journalists who spend their professional lives watching athletes succeed and fail.”

However, whoever holds the title of GOAT should be so based on  accomplishments both on and off the court, or pitch, or field. Operating under that definition, Serena Williams is far and away the greatest athlete of all time. 

In 2017 Serena Williams became a mother, narrowly so as Williams suffered a near-death experience due to blood clots coming up in the birthing process. Williams had been suffering from pulmonary embolism, which essentially is a blocked artery in the lungs. When Williams gave birth in her emergency C-section, it threw off her blood thinners and nearly killed her in the birth process.

 In order to prevent this from happening again, Williams debuted a made-for-tennis bodysuit, which the French Tennis Federation labeled “disrespectful.” The bodysuit, as well as compression clothing, is designed to reduce the risk of blood clots happening. Therefore, Williams was essentially receiving backlash for protecting herself from dying. 

This story, combined with the various racist and sexist remarks that have been thrown at her, are part of a long list of critics that continue to undermine her various successes anytime she breaks any convention. 

Tom Brady survived a cheating scandal infamously known as deflategate, which questioned the legitimacy of big victories following proof that some footballs were deflated to have a better grip. Brady suffered a four-game ban as well as the team getting fined, yet after the dust settled, Brady walked clean. 

It’s difficult to imagine Williams surviving such a scandal with all the sexism and racism she faces. Nonetheless the trending comparison of Brady and Williams can be discussed to no end. There will never truly be a single GOAT, but it’s safe to say that we are living in a legendary era of sports’ greatest.

Williams opposed the charges filed against her and accused Ramos of upholding sexist double standards with his judgments.

“Do you know how many other men do things that are much worse?” Williams said. “This is not fair. There’s a lot of men right here who have done a lot of things, but because they are men this doesn’t happen to them.”

While the crowd validated her claims with raucous cheers and applause, Ramos did not alter his judgment and penalized Williams further for her accusations against him.

After the fact, Williams’ performance was harshly criticized on social media. Her behavior was called “misguided.” Williams was accused of “throwing a tantrum” and was blamed for spoiling Osaka’s first Grand Slam win.

An ESPN video of match highlights with nearly 10 million views shows the incident in full and has allowed viewers from around the world to comment on the situation.

“I went from having no opinion of her to hating her real quick,” said YouTube user Kareem Majeens.

The insults were not limited to her abilities as an athlete. Some users were unafraid to comment on Williams character and family life.

“It’s probably her hormones after having the baby,” said user ilovemytribe.

Other users questioned her motives.

“If Osaka were white Serena would’ve played the race card,” said user Gustavo Cobian.

Ultimately, Williams was publicly humiliated, penalized to an extent that resulted in her losing the U.S. Open and fined $17,000 for her outburst.

None of her claims have been proven untrue.

Merely weeks later, Sept. 27, Brett Kavanaugh faced senators in a hearing to address accusations that he had sexually assaulted at least three different women while intoxicated.

During the hearing Kavanaugh emotionally refuted the allegations, alternating between displays of fury and tears as he sought to discredit the testimony of accuser, Christine Blasey Ford.

While the display drew mixed reactions online it is indisputable that Kavanaugh delivered an atypical testimony to the Senate and that his behavior was uncharacteristic of a Supreme Court justice.

During the hearing, Ford delivered a calm and detailed testimony, yet there was no shortage of questionable moments in Kavanaugh’s address.

For starters, he attacked Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) when she asked if he had ever drunk so much that he “couldn’t remember what happened or part of what happened the night before.”

“I think you’ve probably had beers, senator,” said Kavanaugh. “You’re talking about blackout. I don’t know. Have you?”

Kavanaugh also lied about the meaning of the terms “boofing,” “devil’s triangle” and “renate alumnius” which were all found in his high school yearbook entry.

A copy of Brett Kavanaugh’s yearbook entry, courtesy of Vox.com

Following the hearing, the Wikipedia entry for “devil’s triangle” was altered to match Kavanaugh’s testimony by an anonymous source from the U.S. House of Representatives.

Despite Kavanaugh’s erratic behavior and blatant lies, only a limited investigation was conducted over the allegations against him.

In the days following his outburst, Kavanaugh was given a platform to explain his behavior, writing in the Wall Street Journal that he “might have been too emotional” and the situation was “unfair” and caused him “great distress.”

Kavanaugh was also praised by the nation’s President.

Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him. His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats’ search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2018

Ultimately, Kavanaugh was confirmed as a Supreme Court justice Oct. 6.

The irony of these contrasting outcomes was not lost on many.

In a tweet which has since been deleted, Deborah Barros, a candidate for the Alabama State Senate, said, “Funny how a black female tennis player is held to a higher standard to keep her emotions in check than a Supreme Court nominee.”

A statement to which Alexis Ohanian, Reddit founder and Serena Williams’ husband, was quick to respond.

It's not funny, it's bullshit. https://t.co/pYkmx4ufvI

— Alexis Ohanian Sr. ? (@alexisohanian) October 7, 2018

Unfortunately, the Kavanaugh confirmation sends a negative message to women everywhere, as CNN analyst Kristen Powers asserted, the confirmation indicates that women “won’t be taken seriously” when they do speak out against assaults against them.

Comparing responses to Williams’ and Kavanaugh’s outbursts is disheartening and according to Brittany Packnett, political activist and vice president of national community alliances for Teach for America, a clear example of white supremacist patriarchy in America.

The clearest example of how white supremacist patriarchy works this year thus far:

Society holding Serena Williams to a higher emotional standard in a tennis game than they do accused abuser Brett #Kavanaugh in a lifetime job interview to determine the fate of the country. pic.twitter.com/yeNZwTCBBg

— Brittany Packnett (@MsPackyetti) October 5, 2018

Photos courtesy of CBS Sports and lawandcrime.com

Osaka was the first Japanese woman to win a Grand Slam but because of all that happened with Serena during the match, she lost her spotlight. Everyone knows that if Naomi won, it’s because she worked really hard and deserved to be there on that court fighting for the title. Regardless if Williams lost her temper or not, Osaka still has her merit.

But the spotlight that Williams was under after that match had its reasons, and not only because she “lost it.” She made some arguments that got the whole tennis community talking, and the situation made people discuss the different treatment between women’s and men’s matches.

In case you weren’t watching the match and are not up to date with what actually happened, here’s a brief summary:

When Williams was down one set and losing the second game of the second set, she was charged with a coaching violation. Apart from college tennis, coaching during a tennis match is forbidden and could result in serious punishments. Williams, for example, got a warning and a $4,000 fine.

After that, during a side change, Williams talked to the chair umpire, Carlos Ramos,  making sure he knew she wasn’t a cheater.

A few games later, Williams lost a game point and smashed her racket on the ground, breaking it. This made her automatically lose a point on the next game and cost her another $3,000. When the next game was started Williams was confused as to why Osaka had a point before the game even started and went over to the umpire’s chair to discuss it with him. She said that breaking a racket was worth only a warning, and the umpire reminded her of the coaching warning and that after a warning, on your second offense, you have a point penalty. That’s when Serena lost her temper and started to argue with the umpire.

“I have never cheated in my life!” Williams told Ramos. “You owe me an apology.”

She kept demanding that he remove the coach’s warning and to apologize, which he didn’t do.

Later on the match, on another side change, Williams started to argue with the umpire again saying that he would never be working on her court again and that he was attacking her character, while still demanding an apology. After telling him not to talk to her again, she accused him of stealing a point from her and proceeded to call him a thief.

That was the last penalty she received that day, costing her a whole game and $10,000 for verbal abuse.

Williams was ready to start the next game when she heard the umpire announcing the penalty. She strongly disagreed, and as both players approached the umpire’s chair to figure out what was happening, Williams scoffed at the umpire and demanded to talk to the referee – who is the official responsible for assuring that the competition is fair and played under the ITF Rules of Tennis.

While in tears, Williams kept telling the referees that the penalties weren’t fair, that she would never cheat and that they knew her character.

But she did call him a thief, and the referee said that she committed a code violation because of that. That’s when she pointed out the sexist standards.

“Do you know how many other men do things that are much worse?” Williams pointed out while the referee still stood his ground on the violation. “This is not fair. There’s a lot of men right here who have done a lot of things, but because they are men this doesn’t happen to them.”

She kept pointing out the injustice and saying that it was not fair.

“Because I’m a woman you’re going to take this away from me?” Williams said.

“I get the rules, I’m just saying this is not right,” she said.

Williams also said that it happens every time she plays there, and she didn’t like how unfair it was to her.

She continued to play with the game penalty, serving to keep herself on the match for the championship, and won the game with the whole crowd cheering for her, all the while continuing to emphasize the perceived unfairness of the code violations.

After a disputed game, Osaka won the match with a wide serve that Williams didn’t manage to return.

After all, was Williams being coached? Mouratoglou, her coach, confessed that he was indeed giving her hand signals, but she probably didn’t see it.

“Well, I mean, I’m honest, I was coaching,” Patrick Mouratoglou said. “I mean, I don’t think she looked at me, so that’s why she didn’t even think I was.”

By Williams’ reaction, it is clear that she felt insulted when she was charged with coaching violation. As one of the ESPN commentators said, Williams seemed more upset with the insinuation that she was cheating, than anything else.

When you’re playing a tennis match, anything can change your mindset, make you lose your mind and make you lose the match. Imagine how much worse it must be when you’re playing for a Grand Slam title, with a $3.8 million prize, while people all around the world watch you play.

Cover photo courtesy of CNN International.