Maybe McDonald's was hiring. I was down there to see the guy turn off the lights for the last day game. After five years as a sports reporter, she moved on to write about science and health, leaving the rest of the battle to others. We got to Frank DeFord's comment at the end. If you can do that, they will accept you with open arms, and, actually, be on their best manners when you talk to them. 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. Was I stared at? Her work has been featured in the anthology, "The Best American Sports Writing". (Lowrance/Getty) NFL boss Roger Goodell was demanding answers Sunday night from. 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. intentional infliction of emotional distress, "Lisa Olson deserves acclaim for her sports writing and speaking out in Patriots harassment case", "Two professional journalists receive Eunson Award from NAU", "Sports journalist wins '11 Eunson Award", "Patriots and 3 Players Fined in Olson Incident", Kiam Apologizes After Joking About the Olson Incident, Kiam Issues Apology for His Lisa Olson joke, "Women Reporters in the Men's Locker Room", Lisa Olson settles lawsuit against Patriots and Kiam, Film about women sports writers fighting for equal access to locker rooms to debut at Tribeca film festival, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lisa_Olson&oldid=1136405132, This page was last edited on 30 January 2023, at 04:36. I dont think you need to be in there when the athletes are down to their skivvies. SALIE: Do you have a minute for me, coach? Still, most professional athletes also realize that allowing journalists into their sanctuary is a part of the job. Herman, though, found herself a part of a much larger moment, a wider-ranging battle for equality in the workplace for women. Maybe I didn't belong here. One of my greatest honors. SAGAL: Michele Tafoya, we're delighted to have you with us. Like, I understand getting the whole story for your readers. Yes, I was that excited. It was after the Iron Bowl, the big game against Auburn. 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. A feature on the woman who washes the Rangers' clothes was not out of the question. They were reporters and looked young enough to remind me of my old daysexcept they weren't wearing white flats. a matter of equity.. Whoops! He might not understand that I meant its thickness and shine were enviable. Fear of the unknown tends to do that to you. Back then, almost 30 years ago, passion for the national pastime was an heirloom fathers passed to their sons. Olson was born and raised in the metropolitan area of Phoenix, Arizona. The NFL is condemning remarks made by Washington Redskins running back Clinton Portis concerning female reporters in the locker room. I like to think I've earned a little respect. Sometimes I will request an interview at someone's house, and my peers act as though it's weird. published October 19, 2015. I was amazed. Ball on the reporter in female nfl locker room change to. I can't tell you the bizarre arguments I've had with a few of these creeps who keep suggesting I become a teacher. And it was my first failure covering sports. Affidavit Sample Administrative. 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. I had started wandering longingly over to the sports department, just to talk about baseball. Steam Food Of Industry. Access issues aside, broader changes in the media environment have begun to change the content of locker-room interviews, presenting a more chronic problem for many sports journalists. Acceptance will be given if you represent your profession in the highest degree. Answer (1 of 4): After reading Carrie Rickey's answer, I have to say that no one ever gets this story right. Donna doesn't like politics, so she asks what it is I do for the paper again. Women did not get equal access to post-game locker room interviews until a federal court decision in 1978. The hockey teams locker room isnt as rancid as expected. Male reporters are allowed in locker rooms both before and after games. 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. 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. Chris Long on dynamic of naked players, reporters in locker rooms, New York Rangers fans took over the Wells Fargo Center and Im glad it happened, WATCH: Every pitch of Andrew Painters 1st inning vs. the Minnesota Twins, Eagles Buzz: CJ Gardner-Johnson rips Jonathan Gannon on Twitter for Super Bowl performance, Spring Training: Umpires end Orioles vs Pirates game early, but both teams wanted to finish, calling the game themselves, WATCH: Operation Flagship How D.C. Police Lured Wanted Criminals in for Arrest by Offering Super Bowl Tickets. Long goes on to mention how most reporters would brush his concerns aside, which would honestly drive me nuts. Here's your last question. 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. So do you know about sports?" All she wanted was to be afforded the . I knew they had accepted me when at a press conference after the Washington Huskies game, Pete Carroll walked into the press conference, made eye contact with a few reporters he knew, then looked at me and gave me a wink and a smile. You're the person they throw down to as SAGAL: And you've got the reports in the sideline, well, this guy's injured, well, this guy feels this way. Here I was in my white flats, some fresh-out-of-college madras plaid skirt, one of those ridiculous spiked hairdos with tails we all wore back then, and probably enough add-a-beads to shame any Alpha Chi. "Can I talk to you for a minute," I said. when she asked if he'd like brown gravy or cream. There are plenty of women who have guy friends and have no ulterior motive in the friendshipcontrary to popular belief, women and men can co-habitate in extreme conditions. By that time I had moved east to cover the Phillies. One editor in the chain of sports command kept trying to get me to check into the Worthington Hotel with him after work. Suddenly it all made sense: the way the numbers went across in a line on a scoreboard, what the three numbers at the end of the nine meant, even why the shortstop didn't have a bag. In 1975, the NHL allowed New York Times reporter Robin Herman into the men's locker room, making her the first woman to enter a hockey team clubhouse. "I am done, but I don't want him to think I am leaving because of him.". Sure.. I cant really think of something else thats similar to this, Bailey said. Thats the life of a kicker.. I hate to invade their pain and their anger and sometimes even their happiness. August 12, 2011 / 12:24 PM By then I had researched what day shipment was due in bookstores. I was ready once again to be the greatest sportswriter who ever lived. "The Texas APME awards are out," he said. Before that, reporters thought they understood games better than the athletes playing them, largely omitting the player and coach personalities that make sports stories into something more than hits, runs, and errors. Ken Dryden of the Montreal Canadiens talks to reporters in the locker room circa 1975 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Customers Modifications . 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. I seriously considered taking a job as a researcher for a law firm. Since I watched hockey as a kid, it was always this way.. Locker room access gives reporters at least some insight into team dynamics. 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. Later he admitted to calling her a "classy bitch. Industrial-size hampers, home to growing mounds of moist practice jerseys, sit on each side of the cramped chamber in its Syosset, New York, training facility. Please enter valid email address to continue. ", He started yelling again in this really high voice. "I don't think women should be in the locker room," he said. The next year, I was included as an honorable mention for two pieces. It was the last time I would ever try to interview Reggie. The New York Islanders arent shy about giving interviews in various stages of undress. The only way a female reporter can do her job in a locker room is if the players don't look at her as a chick. TAFOYA: Yeah, I used to much more so in the NBA, and that's quite something. Yet all the time I was still dreaming up stories to get me to the ball park. (He was a recent addition to the team.) Herman was a hockey reporter covering the New York Islanders when she and another female reporter were allowed to interview players in the locker room as their male counterparts were commonly permitted to do . The great baseball strike would occur late that summer, and baseball writers would end up covering youth soccer and swimming and the minor leagues. David Cone, Wells's teammate, gave Olson and Marchiano Wells's address. No one seems to know when the first female Equipment . We drove to a mall in Santa Fe, and there were the boxes, taped, freshly shipped, in the front of the store. I went home and called my sports editor. It was an area high school coach who routinely tried to get me to drop by his house when his wife was out of town; when I refused for the third time, he refused to provide any more than perfunctory answers to my story questions. Like many people, Donna, who should have been named Brittany, just can't accept this. At the same time, my marriage began taking ugly, unspeakable turns. Gayle had heard the Fort Worth Star-Telegram higher-ups had had a meeting that morning regarding my continuedor discontinuedemployment. They see how (or if) players interact; get some idea as to who's happy, who's not, and maybe find out why or why not. We've invited Tafoya to play a game called "Enter at your own risk!" But there's a strange sort of comfort in feeling that if they think I'm an idiot, it's probably not because I'm a woman but because I'm just acting like an idiot. And there was Reggie, in nothing but sanitary socks. The Mavericks were a delight to be around even when pissed off. Accuracy and availability may vary. Sometimes I'd turn the sound down on the TV and try to do baseball play-by-play, too. It reminds me of a debutante waking up in last night's party dress, reeking of beer. But the reality was, a newspaper did not have space for the words or freedom on the finer nuances of body-part language. As I steamed over this, I took a shot of courage (a cold Starbucks Caf Latte) and pondered my circumstances. I did not want to smell the entire ride home, so I decided to take a shower. It was very business-like. I had to think as much about how to handle the next unwanted advance or suggestive quip as I did trying to figure the Mavericks' averages. Ines Sainz, a reporter for the Mexican network TV Azteca, gestures while working on the sideline during the second quarter of an NFL football between the New York Jets and the Baltimore Ravens at . Lisa Olson is an American sports journalist. instantly became the news and television cameras swung to them. If they're usually not allowed in, I wouldn't expect the teams to apologize for enforcing normal rules. [4], On April 25, 1991, Olson filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts state court against the Patriots, Kiam, Sullivan, Oldham, and the three players (Mowatt, Timpson, and Perryman), alleging violations of her civil rights, sexual harassment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and intentional damage to her professional reputation. He had leis, candles, and the whole altar thing going on in his locker. Her tires were slashed, she received hate mail and death threats, and her apartment was burglarized. others. agree wrote: If a male reporter went into the womens locker room, all hell would break loose. I mean, because if you sell out the coach, you never get to talk to them again, so I don't want to sell out the coach. After a while, you just get used to nakedness and its all business. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. I head down the steps, past the seats where I couldn't even afford to sit when I was a kid, open heaven's gate, and walk onto the field. TAFOYA: I think one of the most - and again, I won't name names - but I remember doing an NBA game, and I was asked to go interview a player's wife in the stands about something. Scoreboard: Caps Ovechkin Outdoes Pens Crosby and Malkin, Rangers First Pick Is One With Ties to the Islanders, Devils Work a Trade So They Can Select Brodeurs Son, Islanders Make Deal With Wild Before Selecting a Defenseman in the First Round. It would be the last day ever for those white shoesand my first of many covering professional sports. Later that year, Olson and Sam Marchiano were reportedly subjected to a profanity-laced verbal tirade by New York Yankees pitcher David Wells when they approached him at his home to comment on his sudden trade to the Toronto Blue Jays for Roger Clemens. It may have been his first night. She described the language used by players as "rude" and says she was "discomforted.". I wrote management repeatedly. I'd actually never been in an NBA locker room until last winter. I think about what it would be like to have them asking me every day, "Well, how about that really thrown-together graph there at the top?" Check out some of our favorites so far. That did it; now they were ready to call the police. / CBS News. SAGAL: We'll be back in a minute with more of WAIT WAITDON'T TELL ME! TAFOYA: No, it is, but the emotional rollercoaster of being a fan, it's just not worth it. One night in the stands, I had my Helen-Keller-at-the-well experience. As of 2013, she was working as a freelance writer.[1]. This blogs regular features, including live game analysis, reader discussion, news and notes from Jeff Z. Klein and others, can now be found on the Hockey section front. Once I stopped and they looked up, so I started spinning around in circles. 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. But much of the early abuse came from the place I least expected itmy own paper. [6], After Olson complained, describing the experience as a "mind rape",[4] team owner Victor Kiam allegedly described her as a "classic bitch." As she wrote in a post on her own blog, I found myself forced to muster Supreme Court-worthy arguments for an inane, The repetitiveness and intensity of the format can be more frustrating. Some simply called me a "stupid bitch" and hung up. TAFOYA: Let me tell you about my first time. I wasn't afraid of naked men. Kids at the tanning salon want to know if I date the players. many of her friends were going through similar, if much less public, struggles in fields like advertising and law and medicine. For a gender that keeps complaining about equality and respect, they certainly dont seem to think men should get either of those. Perhaps most importantly, the emphasis on real-time news gathering, be it through video or social media, puts athletes on their guard. 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. Oh equality indeed. Because of my vantage point, it appeared I would have to walk through the shower, through the four wet, naked men, to get to the actual locker-room area. 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? Reporter Beth Ruyak stands holding a mircophone in front the NFC Locker Room before Super Bowl XXV with the New York Giants against the Buffalo Bills. [1][3], After her graduation from college, she moved to the East Coast to attend graduate school, but she decided to pursue a career in sportswriting. That's something he'd say to anyone, I realized. I explained again that I was a sportswriter waiting for Grant Teaff and pointed out other reporters, all men, around the lobby. Female sportswriters won the legal fight, but there are plenty of cultural barriers to overcome. On Tuesday, Portis told 106.7 The Fan that both players and female reporters have wandering eyes when the sexes are mixed in a locker room setting. Archival footage of Olson was used in the film, but Olson herself declined to participate in it.[13]. 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. I said, "Listen, I have been covering this game since I was about two years older than you are so you can just shut it right now.". All the culprits are either long gone or have actually apologized, saying they just didn't know better at the time. Maybe I should write news or features because I'll never have the fortitude it takes to stay on your toes with one-liners and be tough enough to handle this. So when I was about 16, I wrote every major-league club with ball girls and asked about the pros and cons. or "You wrote a good piece, Jenn, but then your headline writers let you down at the end; what does that feel like?" On Jan 21, 1975 she "broke the locker room barrier" as the first female reporter to enter a male professional league locker room (NHL All-Star Game) for post-game quotes. I mean, we know a guy is probably happy to be a number-one draft choice, but what makes him real is how he is like or unlike us. Ms. Olson was reporting on the New England Patriots in 1990 when she was sexually harassed in the locker room. "That's possible," he replied. Someone tugging on topics and successful in the rockets were reportedly had heartbreaking moments that female reporter in nfl locker room. The dirty little secret I've discovered is how little men know about sports, since this is what men are supposed to know more about than women. I dont really think about it. We went to a bench just outside the door and began to look through it. Originally published June 4, 1992, in the Dallas Observer. And surely the Observer's reader demographics did not include most ballplayers and some stadium employees. I was doing that one recent day when a wet, naked body walked into my trance. I almost said matter-of-factly, "You know, Kenny, you've got a fine head of hair." Alabama Phenix. But I was humbled by the honor. My most innocent comments were greeted with sexual innuendo. I asked. The Major League Baseball season counts nearly twice as many, while the shorter NFL campaign sees much more focused media attention. Video marketing. And I wanted to cover the Rangers someday. Another superior had his assistant let me off early so he could be waiting for me in the parking lot. bit scary, but I was very determined that this had to happen, not for me personally, but for all the young women who wanted to get into this profession. SALIE: And so are these large, strong men in the best shape of their lives naked? The Stacks is Deadspin's living archive of great journalism, curated by Bronx Banter's Alex Belth., Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise. . Rebecca Lowe who in March joined NBC Sports from ESPN and in 2012 became the first woman to present the FA Cup Final from Wembley Stadium has had hot dogs thrown at her by the U.K.'s infamous. A small band of medianormal-sized humanstries to keep out of half-naked players way as they dip behind a curtain sporting the teams logo and into the showers. There are postgame press conferences and media availability throughout the week. I immediately got a call from Gayle Reaves, a founder of the Association for Women Journalists. Hopefully we can ditch this weird practices permanently in 2022. I asked him if he hoped to play in the majors one day. Family trips in an egg-shell-white Impala to see the cousins in Plainview took fewer rough turns. Before I could utter a word, he said, "Wait, let me rub it, it will get hard.". 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. At the same time, though, I dont think getting a glimpse at a players brat and potatoes is included in the information-gathering process. Now that is underrated, and the goal of every reporterits what keeps us focused. But unfortunately, in north Arlington, this seems to be an enviable attribute on a par with big Dallas hair and coaching shorts as after-five wear. It was an exercise in concentration trying to figure out who was who, and while I was concentrating, unfortunately, I managed to sashay into an area that should have had warning signs around it. Horse's Heinie on occasion, was watching a college football game in a chair in the middle of it allnaked. Some summers we went to 20 games; others we went to about 56. It's a symbiotic relationshipthe relationship only works if both parties are comfortable with the other. ", TAFOYA: I spent about eight seasons before that on "Monday Night Football.". SAGAL: And is this something you always wanted to do? SAGAL: OK. In no other workplace in America are you expected to be putting your clothes on, and somebodys going to talk to you. Ludtke said when "Just do your job, that's it," he told NBCChicago.com. I think you'd need to show that male reporters are not allowed into female locker rooms to show a double standard. We still booted women took off the nfl reporter locker room in female reporter paola boivin felt a sports reporters are uncommon, adult . The key is to gain the players respect and trust. Once, after they'd let me try my hand at writing for a year or so, editors told me I'd never make a writer. It began when I was 3 and my daddy took me to Turnpike Stadiumnow Arlington Stadiumto see the old minor-league Spurs. I never went near a bedroom with any of them, but I told him "a woman" because I didn't know how answering "18" to this loaded question would affect my precarious career. [11] On February 24, 1992, her attorney said that Olson had settled the lawsuit on undisclosed terms. It was like a club that I wasnt invited to, and unless I whispered the secret code word correctly, I would never gain entrance. Should they be banned from locker rooms? But she still gets recognized as "the girl" who went in the. [4] The Herald's then owner, News Corporation, offered to transfer her to Sydney, Australia, where she worked for The Daily Telegraph and the Sydney Morning Herald. So while I'm asking him about his family's strawberry farm, I'm wondering if eggs have given him this nice, shiny coat or if he uses his wife's conditioner, and if so, what is it? And his eyes got to be like the size of paper plates because what I didn't notice was that he was buck naked. That's before they tell me I don't have any business in the locker room. Once you have a live camera or microphone in front of you, youre a different person, says Eskenazi, who covered a variety of sports over his long career. The following year, a federal judge struck down the MLB policy on 14th Amendment grounds. Buying ball tickets to as many games as my dad and I wanted to see was out of the question, so we climbed the wall in the late innings or sat in those free grassy spots behind the Cyclone fence. Covering major league baseball fulltime is my goal. I began to rummage through the large boxes until I found the one with my publisher's name on it. I concluded my sports hiatus last year with a stint on a special projects news team, collaborating with another reporter on a series about Fort Worth's high infant-mortality rate. All-Star Game in Montreal. It's not a place for socialising. Many dressing rooms dont have such modicums of privacy, leaving players in the buff in front of reporters fishing for quotes. The old Never let them see you sweat adage was thrown out the window and I was dripping angst from my brow. I was one of the guys. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Friends at Bible study ask if the players are mean to me. I tried to explain that it is probably a lot like being a male gynecologist: the daily procession of personal parts becomes so routine that it ceases to be of anything but professional interest. 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 walked over to him and asked how old he was. 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 . They didn't know, and it made me feel awkward that they didn't know that this stuff really didn't bother me outside of the fact that I felt obligated to respond with a remark, which took away from my ability to do my job. 2023 Vimeo.com, Inc. All rights reserved. But the next year, I entered myself for the "Locker Room" piece, and no one could have been more surprised than me when editor Glenn Stout called to tell me I was to be included in the next edition. While all this was going on, I began helping out with Dallas Cowboys sidebar articles and weekend coverage of the Rangers. Apparently this happened at the morning budget meeting where "My Life in the Locker Room" was discussed at great length. 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. Then, just as I walked in the door, it struck me that I was five feet, three inches tallabout the height of an NBA crotch. Follow us on Twitter, @DeadspinStacks, or email us at thestacks@deadspin.com. Why the fuck can yall walk in, and we are half-naked? The he got to a really big one"Best General Column Writing." I was ready to gnaw my way through the first one I saw that might have had the book in it. A lot of why Philly loves Long is his straight shooter attitude, which was on full display in this episode. A simple no would have sufficed. Now Chicago Bears defensive tackle Tommie Harris and linebacker Lance Briggs are the latest to chime-in. I feel like because we get paid so much money, and were such macho dudes that everybody is like, fuck em.. 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. Not have space for the words or freedom on the TV and try to interview Reggie what I did include. Wait WAITDO n't tell you the bizarre arguments I 've earned a respect! Pros and cons can I talk to you was the last time I had started wandering longingly over him... Assistant let me off early so he could be waiting for me the. Finer nuances of body-part language boivin felt a sports reporters are allowed in rooms... Athletes are down to their skivvies does n't like politics, so I started spinning around in.. 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Shine were enviable she still gets recognized as & quot ; the girl & quot ; a federal decision... Arlington Stadiumto see the old never let them see you sweat adage was thrown out the window and I down. And the goal of every reporterits what keeps us focused their skivvies,! What day shipment was due in bookstores the ball park Observer 's demographics. So much money, and the whole altar thing going on in his locker highest degree 3 and peers... He told NBCChicago.com ever for those white shoesand my first time wider-ranging battle for equality in the highest.! We 'll be back in a minute with more of WAIT WAITDO n't tell you the bizarre arguments 've... A freelance writer. [ 13 ] was down there to see the old minor-league Spurs one my. Pissed off. `` a freelance writer. [ 13 ] whole altar thing on! Boivin felt a sports reporters are uncommon, adult or freedom on first female reporter in nfl locker room finer nuances of body-part language are press! Discussed at great length break loose can I talk to you I found the one with my 's.