The Rangers treat me like anyone else who wanders in. 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. 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. Readmore, With the 65th overall pick, the Rangers chose Adam Tambellini, a 6-foot-2 center whose father and brother each played for the Islanders. You can't do this without asking about their dogs and their mom and what bugs them even worse than dropping the soap in the shower. Ill never forget the first time I entered that forbidden place called the players locker room. And theyre very conscious that everything they say could get out.. Maybe McDonald's was hiring. done in the locker room, so equal access had to be granted. I began to cry. I seriously considered taking a job as a researcher for a law firm. 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 was close to giving up. agree wrote: If a male reporter went into the womens locker room, all hell would break loose. 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. 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. TAFOYA: But still, tune in each Sunday night. We've invited you here to play a game we're calling SAGAL: OK. It's not a place for socialising. 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. He joked, he smiled, and he was a great first for me. 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 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. Forty years ago today, "Sports Illustrated" and its reporter Melissa Ludtke took on Major League Baseball and won. Whats more, players are increasingly media empires in and of themselves, lessening their incentive to cooperate with journalists. [9] I talk to the coaches at halftime as they walk in or out of the locker room, and that's always a load of fun especially the losing coach. He could not allow me to bother the guests. We're sitting around the salon one day making bets on when the rest of the country will catch on that Ross Perot is a weasel when someone says he finished ahead of Bush and Clinton in another poll. 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. Someone tugging on topics and successful in the rockets were reportedly had heartbreaking moments that female reporter in nfl locker room. 2 min read Independent media will not have access to locker rooms during the upcoming NFL. I stood in the Coliseums tunnel and was hesitant. [5], On September 17, 1990, Olson was interviewing players in the Patriots locker room on a practice day. 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. Team dressing rooms are typically open to journalists before or after practices and games. That's before they tell me I don't have any business in the locker room. On Sept. 25, 1978, a judge ruled that women should be allowed to enter locker rooms. It was the last time I would ever try to interview Reggie. I'm a general assignment sports reporter now, which means I do whatever they ask of me. And then there's the guyalmost any guy in any bar in townwho subjects me to a sports-trivia quiz during the usual getting-acquainted foreplay. The Herald editor offered her a position handling horse-racing agate. 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. But the most moving were the ones who said something along the lines of, "Well, I just want you to know, if I ever had anything to do with any of that, I'm sorry. locker room was a story. I told the PR guy that I sure hated to bring this up, but there was no place for the way this guy was acting. I wrote about civil rights issues and roamed through abandoned warehouses alone in search of skinheads. He carried me to the back of the outfield wall and climbed the slatted boards with his right arm and clutched me in his left. Acceptance will be given if you represent your profession in the highest degree. I should have told him how sad it was that he had to rub his own. By that time I had moved east to cover the Phillies. Players mostly accept that strangers will see them au naturel. Yeah, my ode to the old stadium won it all. The access is great, but it does create some very. Of course, Rader would have spat corn at anybody. As one of the first female reporters to be allowed inside the NFL locker room, she has been a pioneer in her field. It was like a club that I wasnt invited to, and unless I whispered the secret code word correctly, I would never gain entrance. SAGAL: Well, tonight, Michele Tafoya's special segment, What the Hell is Wrong With You People? Were you a football fan growing up? 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. They mostly acted like brats. Even in the relatively overlooked NHL, the New York Islanders draw about 30 journalists a game. "Can I stand here with y'all for a while?" And it was my first failure covering sports. What does it really matter if the rest of the world knows? Answer (1 of 4): After reading Carrie Rickey's answer, I have to say that no one ever gets this story right. I was trying to work and didn't feel I had the time for petty bullshit. As one of the first female reporters to be allowed inside the NFL locker room, she has been a pioneer in her field. Hey, this is pretty cool, I thought. The guys screamed at me and demanded to know if I was "on the rag" when I was surly; yet they could scream and be surly at me all they wanted. It may have been his first night. Get two questions right, and you win our prize. Back to you, Brett. Follow us on Twitter, @DeadspinStacks, or email us at thestacks@deadspin.com. 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. Sometimes you have to stand around and wait while your guy gets ready, so reporters will pull out their phones and pretend to be reading emails . Its a professional setting, and if the reporter is professional, the whole experience is smooth as silk. So do you know about sports?" Check out some of our favorites so far. Portis said he thinks a female reporter who has the access to see male football players naked is bound to get turned on. That's when a security guard came up to me to ask why I was there. She demanded the same access that male reporters had. Standard Fraley, so no problems there. Accuracy and availability may vary. But how was I supposed to do my job with all that crap going on? Late one night in spring training, one of my co-workers, also one of my best friends, called to read me something. 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. He let me do it. 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. Would it be awesome if they were better ventilated? As I stood outside the locker room, it hit me like a lightning boltwait a minute, Bill Plaschke was in there getting killer quotes and I wasnt! I always won the big awards in elementary school, went to football games, and performed in talent shows. During my first four years at the Star-Telegram I took one day off to model at an auto show and five days off to get married. 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. 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.". I was quite confused. That seemed like such a dumb thing to say. I think how cool it is to watch a stadium yawn to life. "Just do your job, that's it," he told NBCChicago.com. Olson worked as a sports columnist for the Daily News for ten years. The Boston Herald offered her a transfer to Australia, where she would work for the Daily Telegraph in Sydney, which Olson accepted. TAFOYA: So I went to Charlotte, North Carolina, and I did five hours of sports talk radio every day, and that was my SAGAL: That is the hardest job in the world. I ended up covering minor events full time, even doing the dreaded office score-taking work again. It doesn't make me angry anymore; it just seems silly and absurd. Like many people, Donna, who should have been named Brittany, just can't accept this. Indeed, locker room access is built into players collective bargaining agreements with the four major North American sports leagues. would be given the same access as men. But I had a deadline. I was down there to see the guy turn off the lights for the last day game. Show More. 1950) is an American sportscaster who worked for ESPN and NBC Sports beginning in 1987 until 1993. Although Olson settled a civil suit, fans of the football team made threats on Olson's life in the aftermath. In many ways, I had made a career choice when I walked through that locker room door. But it wouldn't be my last. Olson's ordeal was mentioned (although without her name, referring to her only as "a Boston Globe reporter") in the Sports Night Season One episode "Mary Pat Shelby," in which Natalie Hurley was assaulted in a locker room by football star Christian Patrick. They havent had a lot of time to think about what to say, and theyre in a comfortable environment. 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. He got an apology from the Hyatt; I got suspected of prostitution while waiting in a hotel lobby for Grant Teaff. Fear of the unknown tends to do that to you. To begin, I want to point out that female reporters have every right to be in the locker room as male reporters do. Report", Jackie MacMullan reported that the fines were never actually collected from the players. The hockey teams locker room isnt as rancid as expected. SAGAL: B, according to the club rules, quote, "at the point in their menstrual cycle when they are least likely to attract bears," unquote. Gardner later moved on to NBC,. "I don't think women should be in the locker room," he said. I had to go in. . I was covering the minor league team in Wilmington, Del., one night. 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. 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. Mr. October, known to be Mr. It's like having a male gynecologistif he's fairly comfortable doing his thing, it makes the female patient fairly comfortable. 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