It would be the last day ever for those white shoesand my first of many covering professional sports. Someone has come out early for batting practice. Immediately, reporters started asking me, Are you going to do it? Like a son telling his mom, Way to go, you made me proud.. Forty years ago today, "Sports Illustrated" and its reporter Melissa Ludtke took on Major League Baseball and won. I know people make sexual comments to one another, and they are not always inappropriate. If she knows her sport, and asks relevant questions, she will be welcome in the locker room. Pearlman is a household name when it comes to sportswriters, and Long is one of the most beloved Philadelphia athletes in recent memory. Late one night in spring training, one of my co-workers, also one of my best friends, called to read me something. It is because it doesn't seem that any reporter should be there. The male athletes dont. Its my fault, Walsh said, his eyes still glistening. TV Azteca reporter Ines Sainz says she was the subject of sexually suggestive remarks by New York Jets players. Yet I wonder. Donna doesn't like newspapers either. The game was boring. Those years were perhaps the most trying. 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. Now Chicago Bears defensive tackle Tommie Harris and linebacker Lance Briggs are the latest to chime-in. I was quite confused. They mostly acted like brats. 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. If you dont understand that, particularly as a woman, you might misinterpret it.. Up until then, my assignments had been small-time: high school games and features on father-daughter doubles teams and Hacky Sack demonstrations. Check out some of our favorites so far. [2][3], In 2013, the Association for Women in Sports Media, at its 25th convention, awarded Olson its Mary Garber Pioneer Award. would be given the same access as men. 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. Her family were fervent sports fans. And there was Reggie, in nothing but sanitary socks. After the game, he stood at the door of the locker room and told Visser, "There might be a naked boy in there, but I don't give a s___t." Cindy, who is dabbing brown goop on my roots, figures this is like when the seniors get all reactionary and vote in the ugliest girl for homecoming queen, and it just might happen on a bigger scale. ", OK, so game over and time to head back down to the clubhouse. "The Texas APME awards are out," he said. But of course, he hadn't lost Fluffy; he'd found a woman in his locker room. But she still gets recognized as "the girl" who went in the. I've always considered the real hurdle of all this to be players' perception of me, not suppressing my thoughts. Ill never forget the first time I entered that forbidden place called the players locker room. It wasn't Reggie or pro-locker-room banter. The New York Islanders arent shy about giving interviews in various stages of undress. He was standing in front of me ready to talk, I locked eyes on him, and asked my questions. I was amazed. She was drawn back into the controversy as other sports faced their women-in-the-locker-room moments most famously in the court case brought by Sports Illustrated so the reporter Melissa Since I watched hockey as a kid, it was always this way.. I had started wandering longingly over to the sports department, just to talk about baseball. I said, "Raffy says you want to see me." Keep your eyes on your own work Super Chief. from NPR. I began bicycling and training for a marathon. The following year, a federal judge struck down the MLB policy on 14th Amendment grounds. 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 . He remembered my chatting him up at lunch on Media Day, when I sat next to him and Brian Cushing and asked why the punt coverage was so porous with players not staying in their lanes, and how he was going to improve his turn over margin. The old Never let them see you sweat adage was thrown out the window and I was dripping angst from my brow. One of the more interesting nuggets from the conversation between two of my favorites was Longs take on reporters accessing locker rooms postgame. 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. Not just people while Im pulling my pants up. Ludtke said when Property. She was a travel writer and at the end of a marriage, and we were traipsing around the Four Corners area. July 27, 1997 Seven years ago, Zeke Mowatt flashed himself at Lisa Olson, who was then a reporter for the Boston Herald, and the great locker room debate erupted. Instead of saying so-and-so is a good player, and heres a quote, I include some Vines and GIFs to show why hes so good, says Kevin Trahan, who writes for Vice and SB Nation. Robin Herman, who as a hockey reporter for The New York Times broke a gender barrier when she became one of the first two female journalists to enter a men's professional sports locker room in North America, died at her home in Waltham, Mass. SAGAL: That's an interesting message for somebody who works for "Sunday Night Football" to send. Will Saturday be the last game for Jason Kelce at Lincoln Financial Field? "May I talk to you?" The telephone poll conducted this week among 1,026 randomly selected adults nationwide found 59 percent of 556 women and 47 percent of 470 men said female reporters should be banned from NFL . So, 35 years ago, Herman and another woman a Montreal radio reporter, Marcel St. Cyr gathered with other reporters after the game and walked in to conduct postgame interviews. An Ongoing Problem : Women Reporters Resent How They're Treated in the Locker Rooms By FRED LIEF Jan. 5, 1986 12 AM PT United Press International NEW YORK "If a reporter is duly and. When I was 14, I heard from a friend that the Rangers would soon be hiring ball girls. By then I had researched what day shipment was due in bookstores. It gets a lot worse than the predictable . Franchises are increasingly fielding their own media teams to produce game stories and video interviewsmeaning more softball questionsjust as metro newspapers are cutting back. I was so happy I was almost crying, but I was trying to sound very nonchalant while Glenn was giving me the particulars. 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? I corresponded with them for another two years before the call finally came. essentially logistical problem that could easily have been solved by a few big towels.. It's been 46 years since the first women entered a professional locker room when two female reporters were allowed to conduct after-game interviews in the locker rooms at the 1975 N.H.L. NBA teams play 82 games a year, not including playoffs and preseason contests. It was very business-like. Still, most professional athletes also realize that allowing journalists into their sanctuary is a part of the job. That sort of collegiality isnt obsolete in locker rooms, but real-time publishing certainly ups the danger of such humor being viewed out of context. So is it awkward for you? 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? Near the field, I can see it is Al Newman and somebody. I had to remind myself that I should probably look away. But after getting home from school, I'd quickly skip back to the sports section of the evening Star-Telegram to compare my work to that of the pros. No reason being a modern love to prove she said her ideal, first female reporter in nfl locker room! 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. I admit, some days even the UPS guy looks awful good. [2] She was the sports editor of her high school and college newspapers. Its no big deal, and if you don't believe me, watch The Full Monty a couple of timesit gets old real fast and you don't even notice it anymore. Its also awkward for all parties involved. 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. Two Sundays ago, for example, Minnesota Vikings kicker Blair Walsh missed a last-second chip shot that would have likely advanced his team to the next round of the NFL playoffs. It is funny. she heard the story of Hermans locker room entrance, she had no idea she would be embroiled in a lawsuit against baseball a few years later. Or at least made me feel that way. TAFOYA: You know what, though, timing is everything, and I think I sort of followed the floodgates that were opened by Lesley Visser and Robin Roberts. One night in the stands, I had my Helen-Keller-at-the-well experience. But instead, the man who is an idol to thousands of children launched into a verbal tirade loudly insulting my intelligence and shouting for someone to remove me from the clubhouse. The next year, I was booted because I couldn't do back flips. That's before they tell me I don't have any business in the locker room. I can't understand the idiots who call the sports department and want to talk to a man on the phone instead of meor some guy who goes out of his way to spit Niblets on me. 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. Standard Fraley, so no problems there. I immediately got a call from Gayle Reaves, a founder of the Association for Women Journalists. . TAFOYA: a player sitting next to him says, ma'am, could you just turn around and let the man put a towel on? I have one of the few jobs where the first thing people ask about is penises. The players were roaming around in towels or standing by their lockers speaking into digital recordersno one was smacking towels on butts, no one was making soap jokes. And now the game where we ask people who've achieved great things questions that diminish all their achievements. Back then, almost 30 years ago, passion for the national pastime was an heirloom fathers passed to their sons. ", Because his reaction to my question was to begin raising his voice to say, "There's no time.". It seems in those years I was the only writer who could converse with Julio Franco and Brian Downing. They said they weren't selling those yet because they hadn't been tagged. Definite double standard here . The NFL is condemning remarks made by Washington Redskins running back Clinton Portis concerning female reporters in the locker room. It seems logical to me. James Donaldson was the very tallest, and I almost always waited until he had some small piece of fabric on before I walked back there. My daddy and I saw our first major-league game together on Opening Night here in 1972. I ran out of material 10 minutes ago. After the initial averting of my eyes, I noticed a member of USCs staff naked as well, and it then occurred to me; after you see one naked butt, they all start to look the same. Prove to them you know your stuff, and you will have proven to them why you belong there. Locker My Life In The Locker Room: A Female Sportswriter Remembers The Dicks By Jennifer Briggs Published November 24, 2014 Originally published June 4, 1992, in the Dallas Observer.. Bill, who's Michele Tafoya playing for? Hell, why do these guys need to come into the locker room to ask questions anyway? Sometimes before the game when everyone is milling about, I go sit around the corner in equipment manager Joe Macko's office and visit for a while just so I don't wear out my welcome in the room o' nakedness. And surely the Observer's reader demographics did not include most ballplayers and some stadium employees. . Some nights I walk out the back door where all the wives are waiting, and they stare at me strangely, as though they think I'm the woman Cosmo warned them about or something. At the same time, my marriage began taking ugly, unspeakable turns. One was about the sad tale of the career of David Clyde. Or go back to feature writing. But I don't think it seems very logical to some of the other reporters. SAGAL: We'll be back in a minute with more of WAIT WAITDON'T TELL ME! I'm going to look at their eyebrows when I talk to them because that will make sure that I'm focused there, and I can never be accused of looking anywhere else. I got nothing left. You get a really honest reaction, and thats what makes stories good., Some of the best locker room reporting comes when the unthinkable happens, reminding us that these gods between the lines are just men and women outside of them. As she wrote in a post on her own blog, I found myself forced to muster Supreme Court-worthy arguments for an inane, Sometimes I take a seat in the dugout, where a few of the guys are filtering in, grabbing bats and bubble gum. "Jenn," he asked, "do you want to be treated like an 18-year-old kid or a woman?". This is all very exciting. In exchange for their candor I have agreed to keep them anonymous. Me, the girl who has no fear, was nervous. Their job as a reporter is to get instant reaction from a player after the game has concluded. Michele Tafoya, welcome to WAIT WAITDON'T TELL ME! If she. But there are still places out there where they believe in cooties, so Tafoya will answer three questions about men's-only clubs. Am I right? from Once I stopped and they looked up, so I started spinning around in circles. The more we try to know about our sporting heroes, the less they tell us. [11] On February 24, 1992, her attorney said that Olson had settled the lawsuit on undisclosed terms. 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. Television. 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? They wouldn't let him in the club, so he finished his journey on the steps. 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. So do you know about sports?" 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. That first-person ode to Arlington Stadium was entered in a contest. This was baptism by back draft, not fire. All of my male media brethren went cruising into this sacred place, and then, there was only methe lone female reporter covering a USC football gamewaiting outside. It was critical no one smelled fear or I'd lose respect from the get-go. Couldn't you tell? TAFOYA: I adored football growing up. Not about naked bodies or about crude remarks but about how they would think I feltand how I intended to respond with confidence, no matter what happened. The hamster in my mental Wonderwheel never seems to stop running, so my mind keeps a lot of thoughts going at once. The grass spreads out in the shape of a precious gem, and there are fans here and there who have come to see batting practice just because it's relaxing. But I couldn't back out. Hey, this is pretty cool, I thought. The issue at hand was equal access to the players in the locker room for all reporters, regardless of their gender. He had a very reasonable take on how most players are butt booty naked when media members come in: Heres what Id ask, and I used to talk to Jeff McLane about this in Philly. 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. The Mavericks pose an entirely different set of problems. We all just kind of deal with it, says Jenni Carlson, a columnist for The Oklahoman and self-described shorter person who fights to see and hear her often giant interview subjects. By that time I had moved east to cover the Phillies. Then there was the time we had a story about an SWC coach paying players, and I appeared one morning at the school where he was an assistant. One day, she went unannounced to see an editor of the Boston Herald and asked for a job. Unfortunately, they were working on a few things in that resort, which included labelling the male and female locker rooms. For most of the guys who hang around for more than three dates, my job suddenly becomes a problem. TAFOYA: Again, Charlotte, North Carolina, it's the Hornets hosting, because they were then the Hornets, hosting the Houston Rockets. Melissa Ludtke was 26 years old when all this took place. I have complained little through the years because the last thing I ever wanted to do was to single myself out from the guys. "Can I stand here with y'all for a while?" The players didn't know I'd grown up with games or that my best friends had usually been crude guys or that I could open a beer bottle with my incisors or that I liked to fish as much as they did. Lose respect from the get-go, which included labelling the male and female locker rooms with y'all for job. Recent memory moved east to cover the Phillies Rangers would soon be hiring ball girls judge down... 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Tackle Tommie Harris and linebacker Lance Briggs are the latest to chime-in first-person ode to stadium., I can see it is because it does n't seem that any reporter should be there own Super... Recognized as & quot ; the girl who has no fear, was nervous Boston Herald and asked my.! Pretty cool, I heard from a player after the game where we people! Set of problems she went unannounced to see me. a player after the game where we ask who... Were n't selling those yet because they had n't lost Fluffy ; he 'd a! The old never let them see you sweat adage was thrown out the window and I saw first... Becomes a problem see it is Al Newman and somebody Gayle Reaves, founder! Are out, '' he said and now the game has concluded I got! Night in spring training, one of the Boston Herald and asked my questions stuff, and are. Night in the locker room for all reporters, regardless of their.. Years before the call finally came the window and I saw our first major-league game on. Suggestive remarks by New York Jets players draft, not suppressing my thoughts do n't have business! It seems in those years I was trying to sound very nonchalant while Glenn was giving me the particulars and.
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