Would it be awesome if they were better ventilated? He ran into a dark office where I found him hiding under the desk. Before The Best American Sports Writing for that year was in bookstores, I went on a Thelma and Louise-type journey with a girlfriend. 26 photos, First published on August 12, 2011 / 12:24 PM. As one of the first female reporters to be allowed inside the NFL locker room, she has been a pioneer in her field. They wouldn't let him in the club, so he finished his journey on the steps. Some simply called me a "stupid bitch" and hung up. It's a place for changing attire and accessing personal belonging. I was doing another piece on the last day game at the old place, and I was in the dirt bowels of that poor old Erector set where many things, including skunks and raccoons, lived. Donna is a good argument for euthanasia. . Some summers we went to 20 games; others we went to about 56. Being in the national spotlight was difficult and a little SAGAL: So you came back, and you're like, well, I just talked to the coach of the losing team, and he suggested certain things that were anatomically impossible. He starts parading around the locker room with his buttocks exposed, saying Gitte over and over again, Eskenazi says. Slap Shot, the New York Times hockey blog, reports on the Rangers, the National Hockey League and anything that glides quickly across a frozen surface anywhere on the globe, from the snowy prairies of Saskatchewan to Women did not get equal access to post-game locker room interviews until a federal court decision in 1978. I used to write Dallas Cowboys columns in blue Crayola on a Big Chief tablet in the part of my sister's walk-in closet I had designated as the press box. If reporters are usually allowed into locker rooms, then this reaction makes sense. Calvin Russell. I might have actually said, "Can we talk about how your face looks like one of those ear-shaped potato chips that the lady from the Lay's factory brings on The Tonight Show once a year? She demanded the same access that male reporters had. "Can I stand here with y'all for a while?" It was The other was a first-person piece about the last game at Arlington Stadium. Like other working people, professional athletes want to leave the office when their shift ends, so they waste no time stripping down to hit the showers. The Mavericks were a delight to be around even when pissed off. If the locker room is where athletes can be themselves, that change may be the most challenging. They will look at her as one of the guys if she doesn't act like a chick. For eight months, the editors refused to assign me any stories. TAFOYA: No, it is, but the emotional rollercoaster of being a fan, it's just not worth it. So do you know about sports?" I mean, seeing another adults peen by mistake isnt as bad as, I dont know, stealing someones cooking show, but I digress. I began bicycling and training for a marathon. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. It was very business-like. The next year, I was included as an honorable mention for two pieces. When you've interviewed a 17-year-old mother whose daughter was stillborn for lack of prenatal care, how tough can it be to talk to a young pitcher who's lost to the Angels for lack of run support? OK, so now it was home to take a run and try to clear my head of concerns about just what might be waiting for me at the ballpark. Lisa Olson is an American sports journalist. The media circus surrounding professional sports is fed in part by this particularly odd sort of press access. Should they be banned from locker rooms? The week after the Olson incident, Sam Wyche, coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, was fined one week's salary -- about $29,000 -- for refusing to let a female reporter in his locker room. I walked over to the corner where two guys from my hometown had their lockers. During the 1977 World Series, the MLB commissioners office banned then-Sports Illustrated reporter Melissa Ludtke from both teams locker rooms, overriding the New York Yankees blessing and a majority vote in the Los Angeles Dodgers clubhouse. Nudity rarely bothered me, but I prefer never to see Nolan Ryan in anything but Ranger white or bluejeans. would be given the same access as men. Gayle Gardner began working for ESPN in 1983 as a SportsCenter anchor, becoming one of the first women to regularly anchor a nightly network sports broadcast. SAGAL: So you are and have been for how long now, the sideline on-field reporter for NBC's "Sunday Night Football"? He kept muttering. The guys are much more formal in talking. (He later apologized in a newspaper ad, while denying using crude language. Now Chicago Bears defensive tackle Tommie Harris and linebacker Lance Briggs are the latest to chime-in. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said Sunday that the league and the Jets began looking into the situation when they were made . On cue, all the players in the Jets locker room got up and they all had the word Gitte written on their asses, he says. It was the lonely thread that tied me to my game. My dream of covering professional baseball seemed further away than ever. And he began reading. Guys just walk around naked, mostly, says Arizona Republic sports columnist Paola Boivin. SALIE: Men, that was all men, that was all men, sister. So you're a female reporter, you are allowed inside the NFL locker room, you're a pioneer, but there's still places out there, Michele, where they believe in cooties. Melissa Ludtke, then a writer for Sports Illustrated, is shown in her New York office in Januar 1978. I fully expected trouble. He was home and reading stuff on the wire, as we called it at the time. If I never went in a locker room, it would have been fine with me, Ludtke said. But back in 1975, Robin Herman, a 23-year old reporter for the New York Times, had been trying to get NHL teams to allow her access to locker rooms for a year, with no success. I refused to leave. TAFOYA: And so if they come up with any other days of the week, I'll be happy to try those, as well. NFL Network reporter, Jane Slater, says that her job being dependent on waiting around an NFL locker room while men are completely naked for an hour to get a. What does it really matter if the rest of the world knows? TAFOYA: Again, Charlotte, North Carolina, it's the Hornets hosting, because they were then the Hornets, hosting the Houston Rockets. I walked away shaking his hand, wishing him luck and noticed my hand wasnt trembling anymore and I was oozing confidence. Television. I dont really think about it. I went into the girls' locker room by mistake, and considering it was a room with open showers in one area, I was in for a real surprise. The TCBY people are pouring half gallons of yogurt stuff into the soft-serve machines; a guy is sweeping up peanuts in three-quarter time. They picked threeCindy, because she was a perky cheerleader at the University of Texas at Arlington; Jamie, because she had modeling experience; and me, because I was a pest. It would be the last day ever for those white shoesand my first of many covering professional sports. Its also awkward for all parties involved. He'd pull me out of school at lunch once a year to go to the spring baseball luncheon and take me to games early so I could collect autographs. I corresponded with them for another two years before the call finally came. 2023 Vimeo.com, Inc. All rights reserved. Oh, Lord. It's also tricky when you give one writer a piece that showcases him or her in very many words and photos. The NFL is condemning remarks made by Washington Redskins running back Clinton Portis concerning female reporters in the locker room. And I was entering the peak of a seven-year stint as the masked wrestling columnist Betty Ann StoutFort Worth's equivalent of Joe Bob Briggswhose unofficial duties included opening appliance stores, riding elephants when the circus came to town, and acting as rodeo Grand Marshal on the backs of large, hoofed animals. I cant really think of something else thats similar to this, Bailey said. They gave me all the weird stories. Dressed in a pair of virgin white flats, I trudged through the Arlington Stadium tunnela conglomeration of dirt and spit and sunflower seeds, caked to the walkway like 10,000-year-old bat guano at Carlsbad Cavernsdreading the task before me. Quite normal, nothing harmful. Its a mind-numbing thing to experiencegetting complete wrapped up in a job and not noticing the other stuff around you. The sexism row over a female sports reporter who was allegedly harassed in the New York Jets locker room was reignited last night after a Fox NFL analyst claimed she was 'asking for it.' I had enough natural talent, I felt certain, that with one high heel in the door, I could work my way into a writer's jobmaybe even someday cover baseball. SAGAL: That's an interesting message for somebody who works for "Sunday Night Football" to send. It was like a club that I wasnt invited to, and unless I whispered the secret code word correctly, I would never gain entrance. So you've got all these big-haired babes who think the electoral college is a beauty school, ready to hoist their miniskirts for the first athlete who comes along. In an interview on the March 11, 2011 edition of Bill Simmons' podcast, "The B.S. "And I mean, you put a woman and you give her a choice of 53 athletes . Do you go into the locker room? I almost said matter-of-factly, "You know, Kenny, you've got a fine head of hair." I retreated back behind the door before anyone could see me. TAFOYA: One time, I found myself - and I had a co-host normally - one time, I was solo, and I found myself reading to my audience out of the newspaper TAFOYA: because I had run out of material. Places in Arlington might not get it until mid-afternoon. Most of the men I've dated certainly don't know about the social fraying of America or why it might be at all amusing that a guy named Fujimori is in charge of Peru, so you'd certainly hope they knew some inane facts about NFL rushers. The first thing I saw was four guys in a big shower. The he got to a really big one"Best General Column Writing." "A sportswriter, huh? Now, one of the first all-men gentlemen's clubs in America was the Schuylkill Fishing Company of Philadelphia, a club that played a minor role in Revolutionary history when what happened there? (Lowrance/Getty) NFL boss Roger Goodell was demanding answers Sunday night from. Reprinted here with permission from the author, who has also provided an afterword about the response to her story. All I remember is green and light and the security of my daddy's arms. It was after the Iron Bowl, the big game against Auburn. No one seems to know when the first female Equipment Manager was hired. "You know," I thought, "I doubt if any of them read the Observer.". In a few more feet, the torsos appear and the warm breeze melts around my face. One of the most sickening feelings I get is when I have to go interview some pitcher who's been shelled or some guy who is struggling at the free throw line or a coach who is on the verge of not being a coach. His voice was growing louder. The exchange between Newton and Rodrigue rightfully spurred a much needed discussion about women and sports journalism, so I decided to ask three former NFL players to speak candidly about their views on women reporters. Oh sure, at first they think it's pretty cool that you're the only person at a party who can remember Neil Lomax's name or that you can name all the Rangers managers in 18 secondswith a shot in your mouth. Not just people while Im pulling my pants up. For years I was hopelessly mired in phone answering and score taking, watching as others in similar positions moved up and on. It reminds me of a debutante waking up in last night's party dress, reeking of beer. Then he held my head over the top of the wall in center. Me, the girl who has no fear, was nervous. The realities of the corporate world and the attitudes of Texas high school and college coaches quickly clouded my idealistic vision of a quick ascent from 18-year-old ball-girl phenom to big-league ace baseball writer. And I got there, and she came out to stand next to me on the steps there, and she was wearing a very low-cut, and she was ginormous, and TAFOYA: and I couldn't even look at her eyebrows, I was too focused on TAFOYA: But I did offer to donate some yamakas. Then there was the occasion Rangers manager Doug Rader spat corn on me after I asked a dumb question. I said, "Well, you better get used to it now, because there are women all over clubhouses in the big leagues. Sanchez is a media-savvy guy, so I figured he would be a nice ice-breaker. There are postgame press conferences and media availability throughout the week. SAGAL: And those pioneers were like, no, we're going, we're doing our job. In exchange for their candor I have agreed to keep them anonymous. [6] Several of the players subsequently taunted her by walking naked in her presence, making vulgar comments and gestures. But then Donna likes the men she meets at Baja. He sure wished he'd taken it, he said in hindsight. They said they weren't selling those yet because they hadn't been tagged. ", Next to the entry door, there was a large poster of a shirtless Ruben Sierra. It doesn't make me angry anymore; it just seems silly and absurd. Video marketing. TAFOYA: No, I always talk to them off camera because I can get more out of them, and then I come back after halftime, and I report to the audience what I've been told. "That's possible," he replied. They mostly acted like brats. One day, she went unannounced to see an editor of the Boston Herald and asked for a job. And yes, I was scared. I kept saying, Im not the story; the game is the story,' Herman said, reflecting on the night. SAGAL: I got to ask you about the locker room. Eskenazi recalls an episode from the New York Jets locker room in 1988, when defensive end Mark Gastineau pulled down his pants to show Eskenazi a tattoo on his hind quarters reading Gitte, short for then-girlfriend Brigitte Nielsen. All-Star Game in Montreal. A collage on the walls above them shows newspaper headlines and media coverage of famous victories, ringing the small dressing room like a halo. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. It was when all the guys were inside doing interviews, and I was standing in the rain, makeup peeling, outside the high school locker room at Fort Worth's Farrington Field, waiting beneath the six-foot-long "No Women" sign for the players to come to the doorway. Each time I stopped pacing, the clerk and guard started toward me. And there I was at the big red clubhouse door, dented and bashed in anger so many times it conjured up an image of stone-washed hemoglobin. Yeah. SAGAL: B, George Washington himself went on a three-day bender there. Event marketing. But much of the early abuse came from the place I least expected itmy own paper. If he's uneasy, it's time to get out of the stirrups. Follow us on Twitter, @DeadspinStacks, or email us at thestacks@deadspin.com. You take a right turn before you have to walk straight into the naked men and the soap. Forty years ago today, "Sports Illustrated" and its reporter Melissa Ludtke took on Major League Baseball and won. I began experiencing panic attacks and became practically addicted to the antianxiety drug Xanax, buying it from bartenders and acquaintances when my prescriptions ran dry. Accuracy and availability may vary. She had prepared for it by being in the first class of women admitted to Princeton and said Late one night in spring training, one of my co-workers, also one of my best friends, called to read me something. When Michael Palin of Monty Python's Flying Circus attempted to recreate the feat, he failed, came close, but he failed. I think how cool it is to watch a stadium yawn to life. Gordon Robertson, locker room guard, stops Robin Herman from entering the Chicago Black Hawks locker room (January 1975). I was quite confused. [12], In 1998, Olson returned to the United States to be with her gravely ill father and took a position with the New York Daily News.[1][9]. One of my greatest honors. Gardner later moved on to NBC,. TAFOYA: Well, you have to maneuver around that. Lisa Olson is an American sports journalist. If she knows her sport, and asks relevant questions, she will be welcome in the locker room. I admit, some days even the UPS guy looks awful good. Graduate. "OK, you mean you've talked to Troy Aikman, and you didn't notice what a hunk he is?". MO ROCCA: Can I ask you, when you talk to the losing team, do you kind of put on, like, a nice mommy voice, or do you change your tone of voice? I asked one more time interrupting. If I ever dread talking to players now, it is not because I feel that I don't belong there. Bill, who's Michele Tafoya playing for? When I interviewed players, I found I had a much more personal relationship with them if I could sit next to them at their locker, says Gerald Eskenazi, an occasional CJR contributor who spent more than 40 years writing for The New York Times. After all, the story had just hit newsstands and restaurants and bars and grocery stores in the dead of the previous night. [1], Beginning in the 1970s, when increasing numbers of women sought to enter the field of sportswriting, female sportswriters faced frequent discrimination, harassment, and intimidation. the frigid steppes of Russia and beyond, like, say, Phoenix. Kids at the tanning salon want to know if I date the players. or "You haven't written any good stones in the last month. But she still gets recognized as "the girl" who went in the. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. (He was a recent addition to the team.) He got an apology from the Hyatt; I got suspected of prostitution while waiting in a hotel lobby for Grant Teaff. She was previously a sports columnist for the New York Daily News, and the first female sports columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald, where she covered rugby union, Australian rules football, cricket and rugby league. Like the other night when I was interviewing Kenny Rogers after the game, and I just happened to notice he had really healthy-looking hair. But how can you really profile a guy if you haven't seen his coffee table or the junk stuck to his fridge? Although Olson settled a civil suit, fans of the football team made threats on Olson's life in the aftermath. When you've got dirt on them, all the condescending good-ol'-boy stuff goes out the window. I was trying to work and didn't feel I had the time for petty bullshit. I was certainly heartened when I heard about Robin, said Ludtke, who also now works at Harvard as editor of the Neiman Reports magazine. But the point is that you don't even think much about people being naked after a while, and unless you have some peculiar reason for remembering, you don't know who you have seen naked because they all kind of waltz in and out of the shower naked, just one wet butt covered with soap film after another. The little pranksters had used a bowl or something to draw a "circle slash" over Ruben's crotch. when she asked if he'd like brown gravy or cream. As Jones talked to reporter Albert Breer about the "nitty-gritty" of his team's latest triumph, the locker room hinterland showed at least seven players in various forms of undress, ranging . He said he wanted to talk. Herman, who is now assistant dean for research communications at Harvards School of Public Health, has written about that night many times, including a first-person article in the Times a few weeks later. The first time I saw The Best American Sports Writing, I wasn't anywhere near good enough a writer to gain entry into that elite company. As of 2013, she was working as a freelance writer.[1]. I'd heard the stories: the tales of women who felt forced to make a stand at the clubhouse door; of the way you're supposed to never look down at your notepad, or a player might think you're snagging a glimpse at his crotch; about how you've always got to be prepared with a one-liner, even if it means worrying more about snappy comebacks than snappy stories. The reporters were covering the team's loss to the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. I'm sure he's been naked in the room where I was at some time. My dad was a buyer for Better Monkey Grip Rubber Company, and I'm not complaining. It is because it doesn't seem that any reporter should be there. Covering major league baseball fulltime is my goal. I should have told him how sad it was that he had to rub his own. The latter are supposed to be more humorous than the former, though adulthood has taught me different. The Downing part of it, as the guys who would later be a part of The Ticket said, was because, "He wouldn't hit a girl, so we'll go in behind you. It was like putting the lid on something. In 1990, while working at the Boston Herald, she alleged that she was sexually harassed by New England Patriots football players in the team's locker room. He said he would have me thrown out physically. Thats the life of a kicker.. Sometimes I'm kind of quiet in a group interview, and I have this feeling other reporters will think it's because I'm a dumb ol' girl. Oh sure, little stuff happened, like the time one of the Oakland A's made a big point of standing next to me naked in the middle of the clubhouse or one of the Los Angeles Raiders chucked a set of shoulder pads at my butt. "You can't be in here now.". She has also authored six books and was the first Texas Rangers ball girl. I started out in the office, taking scores on the phone and taking heat from the guys. Why? Phyllis George Brown, a former Miss America winner and the first female sportscaster to work at a major network, died on Thursday after complications from a blood disorder she had developed. She faced off against the MLB commissioner and won access a year later, but the . I mean, I know how penises work. Report", Jackie MacMullan reported that the fines were never actually collected from the players. Or the periodic outbursts by Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook. I asked. I noted being in the middle of the room when a player came out of the shower, spotted me, and turned around and went back in. Like a lot of kids starting out, I'd do office work all week and help cover games on the weekendsanything for a chance to prove my worth as a sportswriter. But I was humbled by the honor. Readmore, The Islanders sent Nino Niederreiter to Minnesota for Cal Clutterbuck, and took defenseman Ryan Pulock with the 15th over all pick in Sundays N.H.L. It had been less than a decade earlier, in 1990, that Boston Herald reporter Lisa Olson had been sexually harassed by players in the New England Patriots locker room who exposed themselves. Take the blanket no-comment dished out by Dallas Cowboys star and alleged domestic abuser Greg Hardy after a game last year. Pearlman is a household name when it comes to sportswriters, and Long is one of the most beloved Philadelphia athletes in recent memory. Female players never have to be naked for the media to do their job as they get 30 minutes of closed locker room time for privacy and dignity. I really want to be as unobtrusive as possible, so I will turn away from someone who is dressing or, if I have the time, wait until he has put his shorts on before I approach. Long before I was allowed to eat fish with bones, could go all night without peeing in my bed, or understood Gilligan's Island wasn't real, I loved baseball. He said this about three times. Nope, in fact, I was invisible. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Gayle had heard the Fort Worth Star-Telegram higher-ups had had a meeting that morning regarding my continuedor discontinuedemployment. "Just do your job, that's it," he told NBCChicago.com. He shook his head and said, "No, I didn't say that.". And I didn't want to go back to putting up full-time with condescending high school and college coaches and jerks guarding locker room doors. I eventually walked over to Kenny, who was sitting on a stool by his cubicle. But how was I supposed to do my job with all that crap going on? September 19, 2010 at 2:43 p.m. TV Azteca reporter Ines Sainz was uncomfortable with catcalls she received in the New York Jets locker room as she waited to interview quarterback Mark Sanchez . "It's the same as a man in the locker room to me.". "I can't believe you are not in love with these men," she says, biting her cuticle. I've known one veteran NFL player for more than 20 years -- since he was in college -- and he tolerates women in the locker room but honestly believes we, including me, are there to look at naked . Had all that I'd put up with just been for nothing? She also was a national columnist for AOL's FanHouse sports website, and a columnist and the first woman in Sporting News' 120-year history to write the magazine's monthly back page. TAFOYA: I'm entering my third season for "Sunday Night Football. That's something he'd say to anyone, I realized. 2 min read Independent media will not have access to locker rooms during the upcoming NFL. However, Briggs thought otherwise. I pushed open the door and gazed into the visitors' locker room, a big square chamber with locker cubicles lining its perimeter and tables and chairs scattered around the center. An SMU booster threatened to have my legs brokenand I was delighted. The potential downside of the setting, meanwhile, is obvious: A poorly framed NFL Network shot this year showed Cincinnati Bengals players, pictured over the interview subjects shoulder, unknowingly giving viewers the full monty. She is an American humorist and sportswriter who now does reviews for Publishers Weekly and writes for a variety of publications, including the Dallas Observer, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, USA Today, and Sports Illustrated. Still, most professional athletes also realize that allowing journalists into their sanctuary is a part of the job. And a few guys maybe flounced around a little more just for brief amusement. I had been officially baptized, and it was no big deal. All the culprits are either long gone or have actually apologized, saying they just didn't know better at the time. Someone has come out early for batting practice.