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? 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. I was one of the guys. And it's OK to spit your sunflower seed hulls on the floor. When the coveted Rangers beat came open, I was passed over. It's also tricky when you give one writer a piece that showcases him or her in very many words and photos. 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. Specific. They havent had a lot of time to think about what to say, and theyre in a comfortable environment, Boivin says, differentiating the format from occasional post-game news conferences. ", He started yelling again in this really high voice. Mortified, I pondered my attire (a baggy smock top and pants). ", Next to the entry door, there was a large poster of a shirtless Ruben Sierra. She has also authored six books and was the first Texas Rangers ball girl. 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. I asked. [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. A, Revolutionary officers hid inside from British pursuers who wouldn't enter because they were not members. The he got to a really big one"Best General Column Writing." He glanced sideways, kind of sneered, and stuck his head back in his laptop. The NFL is condemning remarks made by Washington Redskins running back Clinton Portis concerning female reporters in the locker room. I cant really think of something else thats similar to this, Bailey said. And it was my first failure covering sports. "The Texas APME awards are out," he said. Alrighty then, time to search out the first player I wanted to talk toUSC quarterback Mark Sanchez. 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. Sometimes I will request an interview at someone's house, and my peers act as though it's weird. 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. It is the sports leagues and teams that decided interviews were to be That being said, strip clubs and runway shows are completely different to NBA locker rooms. 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. I remember hiding in a tree outside a North Dallas bank waiting for an SMU running back because we had heard this was where he picked up his money. Mine, firmer. In a few more feet, the torsos appear and the warm breeze melts around my face. And I make a beeline for my guy that I'm going to interview, and I'm walking up toward him. It is funny. Now almost everyone had stopped watching football and was watching me and Reggie. SAGAL: I thought I'd bring you on and see what you had. She was a travel writer and at the end of a marriage, and we were traipsing around the Four Corners area. 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. Nudity rarely bothered me, but I prefer never to see Nolan Ryan in anything but Ranger white or bluejeans. I can't tell you the bizarre arguments I've had with a few of these creeps who keep suggesting I become a teacher. agree wrote: If a male reporter went into the womens locker room, all hell would break loose. The more we try to know about our sporting heroes, the less they tell us. As it stands now, the NFL allows female reporters in locker rooms, but only after games. Its all weve ever known, right wing Josh Bailey, wearing a blue Islanders shirt, skin-tight compression shorts, and knee-high athletic socks, told me after a practice last week. 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. The old Never let them see you sweat adage was thrown out the window and I was dripping angst from my brow. For most of the guys who hang around for more than three dates, my job suddenly becomes a problem. TAFOYA: Yes, on-field commentary, pre-game interviews, post-game interviews. He told me I had to leave unless I was staying at the hotel. Couldn't you tell? 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. 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. A female reporter conducts post-game interviews with members of a men's soccer team in the locker room. 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. I ran out of material 10 minutes ago. They've both seen Patriot missiles up close." 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. Gardner later moved on to NBC,. But I can understand the athletes being naturally uncertain what to make of women, of me. Ill never forget the first time I entered that forbidden place called the players locker room. Gardner is considered a pioneer in sports broadcasting, having been the first female sports anchor to appear weekly on a major network. And theyre very conscious that everything they say could get out.. I can look back now and see I was sunk early, my heart hopelessly immersed in a severely codependent relationship with a kids' game played by grown-ups. I always said modern feminism has nothing to do with equality and this degrading treatment of men proves it. I had to remind myself that I should probably look away. SAGAL: Now, why is that because being a reporter seems like a hard job? A male usher stopped three female journalists from entering the Jaguars locker room after their loss to the Colts because they were women, asking other men if it was OK before finally allowing . 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. She impressed her supervisors, and the paper hired her as a paid sports journalist. 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. 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. 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. Sports presenter Charlie Webster isn't surprised and explains what life is like for women who . Youve got limited time to talk to the players before they leave, so make hay or fail is my mantra. The most puzzled responses to my job come from the friends and acquaintances in my personal life. Her work has been featured in the anthology, "The Best American Sports Writing". She is currently involved in a court case to allow women reporters in sports locker rooms. The immediate response is curiosity: Do I get to go in the locker room? It was like a club that I wasnt invited to, and unless I whispered the secret code word correctly, I would never gain entrance. 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. I dropped my plans to go to the University of Texas and study broadcasting. Calvin Russell. "I don't think women should be in the locker room," he said. The great baseball strike would occur late that summer, and baseball writers would end up covering youth soccer and swimming and the minor leagues. We still booted women took off the nfl reporter locker room in female reporter paola boivin felt a sports reporters are uncommon, adult . From anyone. He starts parading around the locker room with his buttocks exposed, saying Gitte over and over again, Eskenazi says. Gayle had heard the Fort Worth Star-Telegram higher-ups had had a meeting that morning regarding my continuedor discontinuedemployment. I wanted to know these 4 things: 1. 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. 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. 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. They used to have us dance to the "Cotton-Eyed Joe" in the seventh inning, and for a while we shook pom-poms during ralliesacts I now, as a baseball purist, consider heresy. Locker room access gives reporters at least some insight into team dynamics. This Is Why Female Sportswriters Can Go in Men's Locker Rooms Melissa Ludtke, a writer for Sports Illustrated, is shown on the job in her office in New York, Jan. 23, 1978, when she was. Sanchez is a media-savvy guy, so I figured he would be a nice ice-breaker. / CBS News. [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. That's something he'd say to anyone, I realized. But there are still places out there where they believe in cooties,. 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. Horse's Heinie on occasion, was watching a college football game in a chair in the middle of it allnaked. SAGAL: All right. Absolutely. He had leis, candles, and the whole altar thing going on in his locker. 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. Numerous new-media outlets have likewise gained access, leading to a ballooning locker room press corps and, in turn, limiting the exclusivity of any individual interview. Logic says they might not. I dont really think about it. The following year, a federal judge struck down the MLB policy on 14th Amendment grounds. I didn't give it a whole lot of thought as I went into the office that day. It's not a place for socialising. The Boys Only sign wasnt on the door, but still, I could see it. However, Briggs thought otherwise. A feature on the woman who washes the Rangers' clothes was not out of the question. 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.' Robin Herman, a gender barrier-breaking reporter for The New York Times who was the first female journalist to interview players in the locker room after an NHL game, has died. But much of the early abuse came from the place I least expected itmy own paper. After a while, you just get used to nakedness and its all business. 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. He said I was loitering. 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. Some simply called me a "stupid bitch" and hung up. They will look at her as one of the guys if she doesn't act like a chick. 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. The MBL, NBA and NFL followed shortly after, and in 1990 all associations allowed women in the locker rooms. Nope, in fact, I was invisible. Thats the life of a kicker.. That was the stunned reaction of journalist Joey Chandler after she, along with two other female journalists, was reportedly barred from entering the Jacksonville Jaguars locker room on Sunday night. So why are they going to think the reporter is any different at first? 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. The latter are supposed to be more humorous than the former, though adulthood has taught me different. It seems logical to me. Was I stared at? Then he held my head over the top of the wall in center. By then, I had become accustomed to the nudity and byplay of the locker room. 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. Except she. No sitting or leaning. I sent copies of their responses to the Rangers' front office. The Mavericks were a delight to be around even when pissed off. If they're usually not allowed in, I wouldn't expect the teams to apologize for enforcing normal rules. TAFOYA: I was too focused on his eyebrows. "Well, I have talked to Troy Aikman," I say, and one woman bites down hard on her blow-dryer and rolls her eyes as though she's just gotten the high school quarterback in spin-the-bottle. I'm no wimp; I can take a lot. These arent your high school gym locker roomsmany are increasingly part of multi-room complexes including lounges and training rooms that media cant accessbut journalists would be hard pressed to find so many sources anywhere else. [4] One player, Zeke Mowatt, "fondled his genitals" in front of her. The only way a female reporter can do her job in a locker room is if the players dont look at her as a chick. And while most nudity is off-camera and doesnt find its way to audiences, the shirtless, disheveled, or still-sweating sports star, facing an array of microphones in front of his cubby, has become an enduring image in sports coverage. Back then, almost 30 years ago, passion for the national pastime was an heirloom fathers passed to their sons. (AP Photo/Dave Pickoff) How could it be that it was 43 years ago when Sports Illustrated reporter Melissa Ludtke and Time Inc., sued Major League Baseball for denying her access to the clubhouses at Yankee Stadium? But I learned to do news as well. I'll always remember that no one else laughed, for whatever reason, and that made me feel good. In the clubhouse, I was greeted by Rafael Palmeiro. Many of the women they're aroundother than the reasonably stable ones like their wives and mothersare groupies. Oh, Lord. My understanding was the brat later had a good talkin'-to with the manager and the GM, and as far as I know, the closest he would ever get to the bigs was buying a ticket. I began investigating the pay-for-play scandals of the Southwest Conference. I have one of the few jobs where the first thing people ask about is penises. 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. After a long game, while standing in the middle of the clubhouse waiting for someone to appear, I sometimes gaze off in one direction, the way you stare when you're bored and become transfixed on an object until your eyes cross and you snap back into the reality of car payments and cellulite. SAGAL: Well, tonight, Michele Tafoya's special segment, What the Hell is Wrong With You People? many of her friends were going through similar, if much less public, struggles in fields like advertising and law and medicine. He sobbed at his locker for 15 minutes after the game, as ESPNs Kevin Seifert wrote, later facing a gaggle of reporters. 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. But I don't think it seems very logical to some of the other reporters. ", I falter, and he complains, "Hey, I thought you said you knew sports.". . 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. And that gives coaches and players less control over the story., Still, for most mainstream sports journalists, venturing into locker rooms remains a basic necessity to stay competitive. "Do you think I am a prostitute?" The next day, another player told Eskenazi it was a joke. One editor in the chain of sports command kept trying to get me to check into the Worthington Hotel with him after work. 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. SAGAL: B, according to the club rules, quote, "at the point in their menstrual cycle when they are least likely to attract bears," unquote. Man, did I ever realize how my attitude and courage level had changed. Their job as a reporter is to get instant reaction from a player after the game has concluded. Locker rooms are overrated. 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. But I had a deadline. We shagged foul balls, but in retrospect, I guess we were more decorative than functional. 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 Each time I stopped pacing, the clerk and guard started toward me. I had started wandering longingly over to the sports department, just to talk about baseball. I was so pissed over that (excessive celebration).. 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. When Michael Palin of Monty Python's Flying Circus attempted to recreate the feat, he failed, came close, but he failed. 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. I have complained little through the years because the last thing I ever wanted to do was to single myself out from the guys. It may have been his first night. Another superior had his assistant let me off early so he could be waiting for me in the parking lot. I was ready to gnaw my way through the first one I saw that might have had the book in it. My dream of covering professional baseball seemed further away than ever. If you can do that, they will accept you with open arms, and, actually, be on their best manners when you talk to them. or "You wrote a good piece, Jenn, but then your headline writers let you down at the end; what does that feel like?" Vikings fans got to agree with that. They were believed to be the first women ever admitted to a professional locker room. The repetitiveness and intensity of the format can be more frustrating. Or go back to feature writing. 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. 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. better do it.. I don't like the double-standard we have with male-female divide. Then Kevin Brown left the team and that whole bunch became as nice as could be. You know when the line has been crossed because you know about the culture that youve entered . Half the cost of the team's fine was to defray instructional materials the league could send to all teams and players, and Tagliabue wrote a letter to Kiam expressing his belief that the incident had "damaged" the league. ), "Hey, if you know so much about sports," he continues, "let's see if you can answer this question: Who was the last NFL running back to also play quarterback in an even-numbered Super Bowl? TAFOYA: But you do that all the time, don't you? TAFOYA: Oh, gosh. He got an apology from the Hyatt; I got suspected of prostitution while waiting in a hotel lobby for Grant Teaff. Sometimes I'd turn the sound down on the TV and try to do baseball play-by-play, too. She had prepared for it by being in the first class of women admitted to Princeton and said Oh sure, they may actually think I'm an idiot. As of 2013, she was working as a freelance writer.[1]. [2] She was the sports editor of her high school and college newspapers. 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. Once I stopped and they looked up, so I started spinning around in circles. "Jenn," my friend told me, "I guess you rate a towel now.". 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. For a gender that keeps complaining about equality and respect, they certainly dont seem to think men should get either of those. Quite normal, nothing harmful. And a few guys maybe flounced around a little more just for brief amusement. Reprinted here with permission from the author, who has also provided an afterword about the response to her story. It's a symbiotic relationshipthe relationship only works if both parties are comfortable with the other. Affirmative. The key is to gain the players respect and trust. Please enable JavaScript to experience Vimeo in all of its glory. "OK, you mean you've talked to Troy Aikman, and you didn't notice what a hunk he is?". 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.". Not sports writing, but the best of every column written in the state that year. And you won't believe this, and I swear it's true: the immediate response of three women who don't even like sports outside of bungee jumping at Baja is, "You've seen Ro Blackman naked?". SALIE: Do you have a minute for me, coach? TAFOYA: So there I am, and I'm getting ready to go in, and this is the first time I've ever done this, and I'm just going to do some radio interviews for tape to take them back and turn them around, and I said to myself I had a rule I established before I went in. At first, I thought he meant on the job. It was at height of the womens movement, Herman said. He was really mouthing off at me. A large portion of a reporter's job is coverage of cultural aspects. Several were guys who had been my superiors at one time or another and were just so gushing with their praise. In the arbitrary world of newspaper politics, the arrival of a new sports editor breathed life into my career. It was quite apparent who the poor influence was on that side of the barn. The little pranksters had used a bowl or something to draw a "circle slash" over Ruben's crotch. That did it; now they were ready to call the police. 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. 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. The Stacks is Deadspin's living archive of great journalism, curated by Bronx Banter's Alex Belth. She was 70. I think you'd need to show that male reporters are not allowed into female locker rooms to show a double standard. I never told my friends. He kept muttering. He still didn't answer my question directly. Of course, Rader would have spat corn at anybody. Kids at the tanning salon want to know if I date the players.