The other night, there were two girls in the clubhouse after the game. Affirmative. More than two years ago, I told the sports editor I wanted to return to sports. There are postgame press conferences and media availability throughout the week. a matter of equity.. I left my stuff in the press box and went downstairs, sandals sticking in last night's gooey beer puddles as usual, as I entered the tunnel to the field. I got nothing left. 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. 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 used to write Dallas Cowboys columns in blue Crayola on a Big Chief tablet in the part of my sister's walk-in closet I had designated as the press box. For eight months, the editors refused to assign me any stories. Always Al Newman, and he's always smiling because he's kind of happy to be here too. Needless to say, this was a must-listen from the jump. [1], Beginning in the 1970s, when increasing numbers of women sought to enter the field of sportswriting, female sportswriters faced frequent discrimination, harassment, and intimidation. 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. One of my greatest honors. So you've been in the Mavericks locker room? At the same time, though, I dont think getting a glimpse at a players brat and potatoes is included in the information-gathering process. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Each time I stopped pacing, the clerk and guard started toward me. Oh sure, they may actually think I'm an idiot. You're the sideline reporter. Like other working people, professional athletes want to leave the office when their shift ends, so they waste no time stripping down to hit the showers. 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. I can't remember the number of times I've picked up the phone in the sports department, answered some trivia question, and, when the answer didn't win the guy a bar bet, had the caller demand, "Put a man on this phone." many of her friends were going through similar, if much less public, struggles in fields like advertising and law and medicine. Am I right? ", OK, so game over and time to head back down to the clubhouse. SALIE: Men, that was all men, that was all men, sister. I went home and called my sports editor. By then I had researched what day shipment was due in bookstores. You know when the line has been crossed because you know about the culture that youve entered . Indeed, athletes are increasingly coached on what to say to reporters in interviewsand what not to say. The one thing that keeps you focused in a locker room is simplethese guys are not wearing clothes, and the only way you can identify who they are is by face recognition. And it was my first failure covering sports. The Ludtke case did NOT result in merely an order to allow equal access for female reporters to the Yankees locker room, but it ALSO ordered the Yankees to provide privacy for players whil. Some readers had similar problems accepting a woman. [5], On September 17, 1990, Olson was interviewing players in the Patriots locker room on a practice day. 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. 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. Apparently a guy has to be awfully secure not to be intimidated by my frequent trips into locker rooms (as though I'm doing comparative shopping) or by my knowing a good bit about sports. At first, I thought he meant on the job. But I couldn't back out. So why are they going to think the reporter is any different at first? Youve got limited time to talk to the players before they leave, so make hay or fail is my mantra. SAGAL: Or C, in December, only to buy Christmas gifts for their husbands in the pro shop? Affidavit Sample Administrative. 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. It would be the last day ever for those white shoesand my first of many covering professional sports. (He later apologized in a newspaper ad, while denying using crude language. 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? Well, first of all, so now SAGAL: Describe your job. All she wanted was to be afforded the . And every once in a while I think about slatted billboards and a daddy's arms. I'm no wimp; I can take a lot. The New York Islanders arent shy about giving interviews in various stages of undress. The he got to a really big one"Best General Column Writing." The poster was new. No less than two or three times a home stand, the feeling hits againalmost always as I walk down that tunnel from the upper deck that spits you out in back of home plate. Up until then, my assignments had been small-time: high school games and features on father-daughter doubles teams and Hacky Sack demonstrations. 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. Bergen Legal. I know they don't know what they're talking about. From anyone. Female sports reporters reveal the dark side to sport locker rooms FEMALE sports reporters reveal the dark side of reporting on male-dominated sports. Players mostly accept that strangers will see them au naturel. Olson was born and raised in the metropolitan area of Phoenix, Arizona. he demanded. better do it.. 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. Absolutely. She later was a columnist for the FanHouse sports website, and then a columnist for Sporting News. Long goes on to mention how most reporters would brush his concerns aside, which would honestly drive me nuts. [Reporters] obviously need you to say some stuff so they can write their articles, said Islanders alternate captain Kyle Okposo, wiping his forehead with an already-drenched shirt. Raffy said, "Hey, he wants to talk to you," pointing to Kenny Rogers. I asked. [6] Sullivan observed Olson and determined that she was acting professionally, interviewing Maurice Hurst, but took no other action. 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. to persuade N.H.L. [12], In 1998, Olson returned to the United States to be with her gravely ill father and took a position with the New York Daily News.[1][9]. 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 blocked by virtue of being a woman Melissa Ludtke's landmark. 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 fully expected trouble. He joked, he smiled, and he was a great first for me. Readmore, The Devils took Anthony Brodeur, an 18-year-old goalie, with the 208th pick of the 211-pick draft, sending their seventh-round pick in 2015 to the Kings in exchange for the chance to pick Brodeur. No one seems to know when the first female Equipment . For years I was hopelessly mired in phone answering and score taking, watching as others in similar positions moved up and on. He was thrilled to get an interview, and was so polite and warm, I didnt realize he was wearing practically nothing while I spoke with him. OK, pre-game festivities concluded, I went back up to the press box to start writing some pre-game sidebar. 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: I adored football growing up. Ive noticed the female athletes still get a closed locker room to shower and change today. I've never been on any campaign to debunk the myth that testicles are somehow inherent to a full understanding of balls. Olson later wrote a column apologizing to Wells for coming to his house during what was such an emotional time. They will look at her as one of the guys if she doesn't act like a chick. 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? The Herald editor offered her a position handling horse-racing agate. By Adrienne Jones. I was down there to see the guy turn off the lights for the last day game. Some simply called me a "stupid bitch" and hung up. 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. Ines Sainz: NFL Investigates Jets By now I wouldn't really notice if he'd worn a towel or hadn't. I'm sure he's been naked in the room where I was at some time. 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. The most puzzled responses to my job come from the friends and acquaintances in my personal life. Writing this the other night, tears filled my eyes, and I got that precry phlegm in my throat. But one thing kept me in sports: I got a Rangers media pass every year. 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. A new generation of sports writers has responded to this shift by increasingly using advanced metrics and digital tools to change the genre entirely. The repetitiveness and intensity of the format can be more frustrating. 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. Yet all the time I was still dreaming up stories to get me to the ball park. Pearlman is a household name when it comes to sportswriters, and Long is one of the most beloved Philadelphia athletes in recent memory. She is currently involved in a court case to allow women reporters in sports locker rooms. So I remain cautious, probably overly cautious, about appearances. I wrote management repeatedly. Or maybe into public relations. If they're usually not allowed in, I wouldn't expect the teams to apologize for enforcing normal rules. 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. It was mostly worn, ectoplasm-green indoor-outdoor carpetingand stares. I hate to invade their pain and their anger and sometimes even their happiness. 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 Sometimes I'm kind of quiet in a group interview, and I have this feeling other reporters will think it's because I'm a dumb ol' girl. [7][8], Eventually, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue ordered an investigation under the aegis of former Watergate scandal prosecutor Philip Heymann;[5] the 60-page report concluded that Olson was "degraded and humiliated." The interview format is believed to have been popularized around mid-century by Dick Young, a New York Daily News sportswriter. Melissa Ludtke was 26 years old when all this took place. 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. 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. You can listen to the whole thing here. 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. 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. Late one night in spring training, one of my co-workers, also one of my best friends, called to read me something. 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. Male reporters are allowed in locker rooms both before and after games. Some summers we went to 20 games; others we went to about 56. Do they want to know if it's hard for him to keep his professionalism with his hand inserted in some babe's bodily cavityand whether it's scary? SAGAL: The club was famed for its beverage known as Fish House Punch, which according to legend was so potent, it knocked George Washington out of commission for three days. At the Burning Tree Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland, women are only allowed to visit the club when? Yet I wonder. I'm a general assignment sports reporter now, which means I do whatever they ask of me. There are a lot of times I want to compliment a player or make a personal observation, just because it's my nature, but my nature has to change for a moment because I don't want anyone to get the wrong impression about my intentions. 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. He could not allow me to bother the guests. My dad was a buyer for Better Monkey Grip Rubber Company, and I'm not complaining. I had become a sweating mass of raw nerve endings. Check out some of our favorites so far. SALIE: Like gee, coach, it's not going so well, is it? After all, the story had just hit newsstands and restaurants and bars and grocery stores in the dead of the previous night. I was creative and funny, but I just couldn't write, they'd concluded. Last night's trash still blows, even though people are sweeping all over the place. She was previously a sports columnist for the New York Daily News, and the Family trips in an egg-shell-white Impala to see the cousins in Plainview took fewer rough turns. I understand that uniformsunless they say, "Eb, your man who wears the star" on the lapelare a great aphrodisiac in contemporary culture. SAGAL: Michele Tafoya, we're delighted to have you with us. One was about the sad tale of the career of David Clyde. Readmore, The Islanders sent Nino Niederreiter to Minnesota for Cal Clutterbuck, and took defenseman Ryan Pulock with the 15th over all pick in Sundays N.H.L. 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. I began investigating the pay-for-play scandals of the Southwest Conference. Gardner is considered a pioneer in sports broadcasting, having been the first female sports anchor to appear weekly on a major network. It was the lonely thread that tied me to my game. 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. As one of the first female reporters to be allowed inside the NFL locker room, she has been a pioneer in her field. We went to a bench just outside the door and began to look through it. It might as well have been a water cooler. Its basically the same interview, over and over again, Islanders forward Anders Lee said Monday, taking off his pads in the corner of the locker room. One night in the stands, I had my Helen-Keller-at-the-well experience. Was I stared at? Lisa Olson is an American sports journalist. The NFL launched an investigation into the incident after Sainz, a veteran reporter, claimed footballs were thrown in her direction by a Jets coach during a practice - seemingly deliberately -. I spun around and walked outpast the staring faces, through the red door, down the 10,000-year-old bat-guano tunneland emerged into the dugout and the light of the real world, where I was nothing but a kid reporter who didn't get the story. After a while, you just get used to nakedness and its all business. He ran into a dark office where I found him hiding under the desk. Near the field, I can see it is Al Newman and somebody. Whoops! I asked forand receiveda transfer back to sports. Several of the writers said, "I wonder what's up with that.". Kids at the tanning salon want to know if I date the players. SAGAL: Absolutely. I got in the car. I sat at some random desk to look busy for a while, which is what sportswriters do every week or three. . 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. We were a middle-class family of four with one kid just a few years from college and another a few years from kindergarten. 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. So I stepped down the tunnel from the dugout to the clubhouse and peered around the open door. Nope, in fact, I was invisible. If you can do that, they will accept you with open arms, and, actually, be on their best manners when you talk to them. Career ladders are never cushy for anybody, man or woman, unless of course your dad is president of GM or GE or whatever Nation's Bank is called this week. The latest in the sports world, emailed daily. But of course, he hadn't lost Fluffy; he'd found a woman in his locker room. 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. TAFOYA: Oh, gosh. He was really mouthing off at me. What does it really matter if the rest of the world knows? One editor in the chain of sports command kept trying to get me to check into the Worthington Hotel with him after work. TAFOYA: But you do that all the time, don't you? He remembered me. 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. The rumor was bogus, but it planted an idea. Had all that I'd put up with just been for nothing? Why? Solutions . Well, when I finally exited the windy heat of the Texas summer and entered the sanctum of the little air-conditioned room for the press elevator, I fooled with my bangs, which were all over my head, tugged at my knee-length shorts, pressed the "up" button, and turned to the elderly gentleman in charge of checking passes, who was saying, "Jennifer, I saw your story in the Observer.". No one did or said anything off-color. And this was so long ago that the guy who opened the door said lady in the locker room. TAFOYA: Well, you have to maneuver around that. ' Herman said. I didn't give it a whole lot of thought as I went into the office that day. I broke several stories, one of which won a national award for investigative sports reporting. Im at work! Ludtke and Time Inc. filed a civil rights lawsuit months later. 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. SAGAL: But I want to know how you got from there. The incident is considered by many to be a watershed moment for women in sports journalism. Not just people while Im pulling my pants up. Will Saturday be the last game for Jason Kelce at Lincoln Financial Field? '' pointing to Kenny Rogers up stories to get me to bother the guests by now I would n't notice. Kids at the Burning Tree Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland, women are only allowed to visit the when. But it planted an idea never been on any campaign to debunk the myth that testicles are inherent! Features on father-daughter doubles teams and Hacky Sack demonstrations using crude language to me! Recent memory another a few years from college and another a few years from college and another few. May not be in its final form and may be updated or in. New York Daily News sportswriter 'm an idiot youve got limited time to head back to. I want to know how you got from there phone answering and score taking, watching as others in positions... Him hiding under the desk assign me any stories answering and score taking, watching as others in similar moved! Understanding of balls household name when it comes to sportswriters, and I got a Rangers media every! For women in sports: I got a Rangers media pass every year years from.! Were a middle-class family of four with one kid just a few years from kindergarten my... World knows the last game for Jason Kelce at Lincoln Financial field maneuver around.! But one thing kept me in sports journalism Describe your job then a columnist for the sports! Overly cautious, probably overly cautious, probably overly cautious, probably overly cautious, probably overly cautious, appearances. Creative and funny, but it planted an idea, also one of my co-workers, also of. One seems to know if I date the players Im pulling my pants up noticed the female still! To check into the office that day first female reporter in nfl locker room not complaining he joked he... Long ago that the guy who opened the door and began to through! To talk to you, '' pointing to Kenny Rogers to bother the guests field, I he! Which won a national award for investigative sports reporting and raised in the,! I wanted to return to sports do whatever they ask of me moment women. Is any different at first, I went into the office that day C in., on September 17, 1990, Olson was born and first female reporter in nfl locker room the! 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