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. Gordon Robertson, locker room guard, stops Robin Herman from entering the Chicago Black Hawks locker room (January 1975). But the road has been anything but smooth. Before The Best American Sports Writing for that year was in bookstores, I went on a Thelma and Louise-type journey with a girlfriend. 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. The NFL also sent a memo to all 32 teams in the league Thursday reminding them of its equal access and conduct policy toward the media. Then he held my head over the top of the wall in center. (I'm serious, they really ask this. The MBL, NBA and NFL followed shortly after, and in 1990 all associations allowed women in the locker rooms. 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. SAGAL: B, according to the club rules, quote, "at the point in their menstrual cycle when they are least likely to attract bears," unquote. Franchises are increasingly fielding their own media teams to produce game stories and video interviewsmeaning more softball questionsjust as metro newspapers are cutting back. Their job as a reporter is to get instant reaction from a player after the game has concluded. It seems logical to me. 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. SAGAL: What's the worst reaction you've ever gotten in that situation? You're the sideline reporter. It was like a club that I wasnt invited to, and unless I whispered the secret code word correctly, I would never gain entrance. Before a team got used to me, there might be some giggling each time someone made a smart remark or cursed loud enough to get you kicked out of the Watauga Dairy Queen. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said Sunday that the league and the Jets began looking into the situation when they were made . 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. But it struck me that something had changed: that my presence was no longer cause for flouncing; that I'd somehow earned this strange sign of courtesy and respect. Herman, then a 23-year-old reporter for The New York Times, had been trying for a year For years I was hopelessly mired in phone answering and score taking, watching as others in similar positions moved up and on. Now almost everyone had stopped watching football and was watching me and Reggie. 2 min read Independent media will not have access to locker rooms during the upcoming NFL. And here I'd been hoping for a controlled rollout on this thing. Ludtke said when Heck, with 10 percent of the population homosexual, there's a good chance that some of the male reporters are homosexual as well. The male athletes dont. I mean, I know how penises work. Like, I understand getting the whole story for your readers. She is currently involved in a court case to allow women reporters in sports locker rooms. And every once in a while I think about slatted billboards and a daddy's arms. One was about the sad tale of the career of David Clyde. The great baseball strike would occur late that summer, and baseball writers would end up covering youth soccer and swimming and the minor leagues. My most innocent comments were greeted with sexual innuendo. Back to you, Brett. I said, "Well, you better get used to it now, because there are women all over clubhouses in the big leagues. A kidI mean, really a kidstarted telling me women had no business in the locker room. Yet I wonder. I seriously considered taking a job as a researcher for a law firm. When Michael Palin of Monty Python's Flying Circus attempted to recreate the feat, he failed, came close, but he failed. Please enable JavaScript to experience Vimeo in all of its glory. Like many people, Donna, who should have been named Brittany, just can't accept this. Though there have been numerous instances of female reporters being harassed or discriminated against over the years, Ludtke says most players were surprisingly receptive to her presence afterward. Fox NFL analyst Brian Baldinger said Sainz was "asking for it," during a radio conversation, and Washington Redskin Clinton Portis put on an entertaining display when asked about comments he made during a radio interview, saying that when there are female reporters in a locker room, "I 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. We've invited Tafoya to play a game called "Enter at your own risk!" The Mavericks pose an entirely different set of problems. first female sports columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald, where she covered rugby union, Australian rules football, cricket and rugby league. 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 kept saying, Im not the story; the game is the story,' Herman said, reflecting on the night. In no other workplace in America are you expected to be putting your clothes on, and somebodys going to talk to you. SAGAL: OK. It was critical no one smelled fear or I'd lose respect from the get-go. If the locker room is where athletes can be themselves, that change may be the most challenging. Ludtke could gain access to baseball clubhouses to cover the World Series in 1978 and she wrote an Op-Ed piece for the Times when the New England Patriots were harassing Lisa Olson, a reporter for the Boston Herald at the time. 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. SAGAL: Because I remember - this was now going back 20 years ago maybe SAGAL: when the first female reporters were working major sports, and they wanted to go into the locker room and do the same damn interviews that their male counterparts were doing. ", Next to the entry door, there was a large poster of a shirtless Ruben Sierra. I asked. "The Texas APME awards are out," he said. 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. Archival footage of Olson was used in the film, but Olson herself declined to participate in it.[13]. 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? "Can I talk to you for a minute," I said. He said I was loitering. The Mavericks were a delight to be around even when pissed off. SAGAL: Here's your first question. I hate to invade their pain and their anger and sometimes even their happiness. I should have told him how sad it was that he had to rub his own. And you know, that was the last I ever heard of it from anyone on the team. I had started wandering longingly over to the sports department, just to talk about baseball. After several female sports reporters discussed the level of sexual harassment that they faced in the sports industry with Sports Illustrated in 2015, SI revisits the topic in 2017. The best advice I ever got was go get a job somewhere. I was one of the guys. If female journalists are allowed into male locker rooms, then either male journalists should be allowed in female locker rooms or female journalists should not be allowed into male locker rooms. "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. Nope, in fact, I was invisible. 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. They havent had a lot of time to think about what to say, and theyre in a comfortable environment. My dad was a buyer for Better Monkey Grip Rubber Company, and I'm not complaining. This is not a matter that only pertains to the NFL, but to any sport in general especially the MLB. Maybe I'd never fit in. I was close to giving up. According to NBCChicago.com, Harris believes both members of the media and athletes should conduct themselves in a professional manner - gender aside. Her tires were slashed, she received hate mail and death threats, and her apartment was burglarized. SAGAL: B, George Washington himself went on a three-day bender there. Or go back to feature writing. I was covering the minor league team in Wilmington, Del., one night. It was time to go back to the dream. Melissa Ludtke was 26 years old when all this took place. They mostly acted like brats. Oh, Lord. Yet all the time I was still dreaming up stories to get me to the ball park. Specific. It's the reason I'm a sportswriter, and I learned it from my dad. Alabama Phenix. Female sportswriters won the legal fight, but there are plenty of cultural barriers to overcome. Actually, I tell them, one of the most peculiar side effects of my job is that it seems to run off men in personal relationships. It was at height of the womens movement, Herman said. The reasoning behind this policy is that players are more likely to be relaxed and open with reporters after they have had a chance to cool down and take a shower. I began to cry. SAGAL: Now, why is that because being a reporter seems like a hard job? Perhaps the most meaningful were the calls from fellow sportswriters. Or like Brandon Grahams locker is next to mine, and he has 40 reporters around him, and someone is bumping into my naked ass. And in no mood to take shit anymore. To begin, I want to point out that female reporters have every right to be in the locker room as male reporters do. TAFOYA: I mean, you get to know every single coach and how he's going to respond to you in TAFOYA: that moment, and you just sort of brace for it. It reminds me of a debutante waking up in last night's party dress, reeking of beer. The first Ranger I interviewed was drying his stomach with a towel. It was the last time I would ever try to interview Reggie. Fear of the unknown tends to do that to you. The Liberty Line is owned and operated by TLL Sports LLC. 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. I asked him if he hoped to play in the majors one day. Referring to the United States military's use of Patriot missiles during the then-ongoing Gulf War, Kiam said to the audience: "What do the Iraqis have in common with Lisa Olson? Leaking testosterone and reeking of beer, a Jethro Bodin-esque character sidles up and asks what I do. As Orwell said, Everyone's equal, but some are more equal than others. 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. And there, not 1,000 days after I had emerged from the darkness of the womb, hundreds of bright light bulbs made me squint as I watched the first half-inning of my life, the last three outs of a Spurs game. But how can you really profile a guy if you haven't seen his coffee table or the junk stuck to his fridge? If reporters are usually allowed into locker rooms, then this reaction makes sense. Last night's trash still blows, even though people are sweeping all over the place. Like a son telling his mom, Way to go, you made me proud.. The bouncing, wide-eyed ball girl who wanted to write about baseball more than anything was gone, abandoned in increments on football fields, at locker room doors, in editors' offices, and on barstools. Sanchez is a media-savvy guy, so I figured he would be a nice ice-breaker. 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. 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. There are postgame press conferences and media availability throughout the week. It might as well have been a water cooler. SAGAL: The job of the NFL sideline reporter is three parts glamour, four parts grit and 10 parts fending off the advances of a randy Hall of Fame quarterback. For instance, there are things I might say to a friend or even a casual coworker that I wouldn't think a thing about, but I stop short of saying such things to the players. The guys are much more formal in talking. On this day in 1977, Melissa Ludtke was barred from reporting the World Series from the teams' locker rooms. 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 was important to be bold. 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. Nudity rarely bothered me, but I prefer never to see Nolan Ryan in anything but Ranger white or bluejeans. Of course, Rader would have spat corn at anybody. locker room was a story. This was baptism by back draft, not fire. We still booted women took off the nfl reporter locker room in female reporter paola boivin felt a sports reporters are uncommon, adult . But I must tell you, I find that being a reporter is so much easier than being a fan. SAGAL: That's an interesting message for somebody who works for "Sunday Night Football" to send. I have assimilated to a large degree but probably never will completely. Her work has been featured in the anthology, "The Best American Sports Writing". David Cone, Wells's teammate, gave Olson and Marchiano Wells's address. God, I can't believe someone didn't warn me, I thought. ), "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? The access is great, but it does create some very. 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. Was I stared at? Covering major league baseball fulltime is my goal. The misconceptions about the atmosphere are overrated. They were happy to oblige. A feature on the woman who washes the Rangers' clothes was not out of the question. I helped cover the team for the Associated Press. But this was something else. "It's the same as a man in the locker room to me.". KURTIS: She did great because she got two right. Maybe McDonald's was hiring. 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. My name and Roger Angell's had been mentioned in the same sentence. And then you've got this woman who comes in to interview them, maybe with big hair and a short skirt too, depending on the humidity and what's off at the cleaners that day. SAGAL: You're going to say B, he got back to London but couldn't be readmitted because he wasn't wearing a jacket and tie. His voice was growing louder. And his eyes got to be like the size of paper plates because what I didn't notice was that he was buck naked. SAGAL: Absolutely. In the arbitrary world of newspaper politics, the arrival of a new sports editor breathed life into my career. others. TAFOYA: No, it is, but the emotional rollercoaster of being a fan, it's just not worth it. Women will kick up a fuss about men being in a women's locker room, and men should do the same with women. Tipped off to my presence, the coach broke into a near run when I headed toward him in the hall. Its a symbiotic relationship. The players dont care, I dont care, heynobody cares! TAFOYA: Oh, gosh. I explained again that I was a sportswriter waiting for Grant Teaff and pointed out other reporters, all men, around the lobby. People were calling from all over about the piece. 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. At the same time, my marriage began taking ugly, unspeakable turns. I was down there to see the guy turn off the lights for the last day game. "And I mean, you put a woman and you give her a choice of 53 athletes . And what if someone saw me in this state of trepidation? The little pranksters had used a bowl or something to draw a "circle slash" over Ruben's crotch. I like to think I've earned a little respect. 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. By then I had researched what day shipment was due in bookstores. The other night, there were two girls in the clubhouse after the game. All rights reserved. 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?" We laughed and remembered when Desmond Reed finally scored a touchdown and he lit up telling me, I couldnt even enjoy it. And it's OK to spit your sunflower seed hulls on the floor. Mr. October, known to be Mr. TAFOYA: But still, tune in each Sunday night. 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. many of her friends were going through similar, if much less public, struggles in fields like advertising and law and medicine. I was certainly heartened when I heard about Robin, said Ludtke, who also now works at Harvard as editor of the Neiman Reports magazine. Here's your last question. I complained. We went to a bench just outside the door and began to look through it. SAGAL: How do you talk about sports for five hours without boring yourself to death? I felt like a cancer victim who was finally ready to give up the fight because it meant giving up the pain and humiliation. 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