So you've been in the Mavericks locker room? 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. . He may be a tough guy, but when I talked with him, he was slathering a nice coconut lotion all over his chest and was very soft-spoken. He was really mouthing off at me. She later was a columnist for the FanHouse sports website, and then a columnist for Sporting News. SAGAL: B, according to the club rules, quote, "at the point in their menstrual cycle when they are least likely to attract bears," unquote. David Cone, Wells's teammate, gave Olson and Marchiano Wells's address. 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.". SAGAL: We'll be back in a minute with more of WAIT WAITDON'T TELL ME! I began to rummage through the large boxes until I found the one with my publisher's name on it. 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 . The first Ranger I interviewed was drying his stomach with a towel. He remembered me. agree wrote: If a male reporter went into the womens locker room, all hell would break loose. [5], On September 17, 1990, Olson was interviewing players in the Patriots locker room on a practice day. Should they be banned from locker rooms? I asked Reggie, as everyone watched and listened. Then he held my head over the top of the wall in center. 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. I just wanted to cover sports. I always won the big awards in elementary school, went to football games, and performed in talent shows. Most of the men I've dated certainly don't know about the social fraying of America or why it might be at all amusing that a guy named Fujimori is in charge of Peru, so you'd certainly hope they knew some inane facts about NFL rushers. I asked my question; he answered. And he began reading. I was amazed. He was standing in front of me ready to talk, I locked eyes on him, and asked my questions. Herman, then a 23-year-old reporter for The New York Times, had been trying for a year 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. So everyone's kind of shuffling around. "All right, heck with it then," I said. Family trips in an egg-shell-white Impala to see the cousins in Plainview took fewer rough turns. Its a professional setting, and if the reporter is professional, the whole experience is smooth as silk. Someone has come out early for batting practice. [4] Robert Perryman did the same while her back was turned. My dad was a buyer for Better Monkey Grip Rubber Company, and I'm not complaining. You're the sideline reporter. 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. It's a place for changing attire and accessing personal belonging. I tried to explain that it is probably a lot like being a male gynecologist: the daily procession of personal parts becomes so routine that it ceases to be of anything but professional interest. Will Saturday be the last game for Jason Kelce at Lincoln Financial Field? Report", Jackie MacMullan reported that the fines were never actually collected from the players. Accuracy and availability may vary. Complete Coverage of Ines Sainz on Crimesider. An SMU booster threatened to have my legs brokenand I was delighted. published October 19, 2015. And what if someone saw me in this state of trepidation? People were calling from all over about the piece. I broke several stories, one of which won a national award for investigative sports reporting. One was about the sad tale of the career of David Clyde. TV Azteca reporter Ines Sainz says she was the subject of sexually suggestive remarks by New York Jets players. I began to cry. 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. Now Chicago Bears defensive tackle Tommie Harris and linebacker Lance Briggs are the latest to chime-in. SAGAL: So how did you get into the - how did you - I mean, I'm going to guess SAGAL: that it's harder for a woman to get into major league professional sports reporting than it is for a man. teams to grant her access and not all agreed quickly. Man, did I ever realize how my attitude and courage level had changed. I walked over to the only Angel who didn't yet have on some form of clothing. But this was something else. He glanced sideways, kind of sneered, and stuck his head back in his laptop. I feel like because we get paid so much money, and were such macho dudes that everybody is like, fuck em.. SAGAL: I thought I'd bring you on and see what you had. He got an apology from the Hyatt; I got suspected of prostitution while waiting in a hotel lobby for Grant Teaff. 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. I was creative and funny, but I just couldn't write, they'd concluded. But she still gets recognized as the girl who went in the locker room first. The key is to gain the players respect and trust. It was It's also tricky when you give one writer a piece that showcases him or her in very many words and photos. He said he would have me thrown out physically. 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. She was assigned to cover the Boston Bruins, the 1990 Super Bowl, and, beginning in the fall of 1990, the New England Patriots. Portis said he thinks a female reporter who has the access to see male football players naked is bound to get turned on. Maybe I didn't belong here. Mr. October, known to be Mr. It began when I was 3 and my daddy took me to Turnpike Stadiumnow Arlington Stadiumto see the old minor-league Spurs. A kidI mean, really a kidstarted telling me women had no business in the locker room. Ludtke and Time Inc. filed a civil rights lawsuit months later. And you know, that was the last I ever heard of it from anyone on the team. He might not understand that I meant its thickness and shine were enviable. teams to allow her and other women reporters access to athletes in the postgame locker room when, unexpectedly, the two coaches at the 1975 N.H.L. "OK, you mean you've talked to Troy Aikman, and you didn't notice what a hunk he is?". done in the locker room, so equal access had to be granted. [6] The general manager of the team was fired. Like the other night when I was interviewing Kenny Rogers after the game, and I just happened to notice he had really healthy-looking hair. 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.". 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. A three-part series on Ruth Ryan, spouse of Nolan, turned into a delightful three-week chore that included stops at the Ryans' ranch in Alvin and the stadium. I've been around long enough now that if they see me turn away, they probably know it isn't because I'm scared or intimidated. I have complained little through the years because the last thing I ever wanted to do was to single myself out from the guys. But I was humbled by the honor. / CBS News. 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 incident is considered by many to be a watershed moment for women in sports journalism. first female sports columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald, where she covered rugby union, Australian rules football, cricket and rugby league. More than two years ago, I told the sports editor I wanted to return to sports. The internet, magazines, and plenty of small family-owned businesses in the Philadelphia area offer the same experience. 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. Oh sure, they may actually think I'm an idiot. locker room was a story. If she. TAFOYA: a player sitting next to him says, ma'am, could you just turn around and let the man put a towel on? For a minute, before I start to work, I smell the bubble gum in the breeze and look at the kids leaning over the dugout and the boys of summer in it. 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. No one seems to know when the first female Equipment . Donna doesn't like politics, so she asks what it is I do for the paper again. Olson sued the team, and the players she implicated were fined by the NFL after its own investigation. many of her friends were going through similar, if much less public, struggles in fields like advertising and law and medicine. SAGAL: And some of the players were like, wait a minute, we don't want girls in here. Then there was Everson Griffen, an underclassman defensive end who will be a big name next year and eventually on Sundays. SAGAL: That's an interesting message for somebody who works for "Sunday Night Football" to send. Gayle had heard the Fort Worth Star-Telegram higher-ups had had a meeting that morning regarding my continuedor discontinuedemployment. 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. No reason being a modern love to prove she said her ideal, first female reporter in nfl locker room! Well, Reggie Jackson was my first. The media circus surrounding professional sports is fed in part by this particularly odd sort of press access. Ines Sainz: NFL Investigates Jets But then Donna likes the men she meets at Baja. Bill, how did Michele do on our quiz? I asked. I've never been on any campaign to debunk the myth that testicles are somehow inherent to a full understanding of balls. He. Yet all the time I was still dreaming up stories to get me to the ball park. Perfect. Olson is a member of the Baseball Writers' Association of America and is a Hall of Fame voter. You get a really honest reaction, and thats what makes stories good. I was trying to work and didn't feel I had the time for petty bullshit. Now, one of the first all-men gentlemen's clubs in America was the Schuylkill Fishing Company of Philadelphia, a club that played a minor role in Revolutionary history when what happened there? Here's your last question. 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? [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. I didn't give it a whole lot of thought as I went into the office that day. 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. Those years were perhaps the most trying. [4] The Herald's then owner, News Corporation, offered to transfer her to Sydney, Australia, where she worked for The Daily Telegraph and the Sydney Morning Herald. "May I talk to you?" At first, I thought he meant on the job. I went home and called my sports editor. I was ready once again to be the greatest sportswriter who ever lived. 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. Mowatt walked up to her while he was nude and fondled his genitals as she was interviewing a teammate. [9] TAFOYA: But you do that all the time, don't you? I asked. For days, weeks, months --. However, Briggs thought otherwise. OK, so now it was home to take a run and try to clear my head of concerns about just what might be waiting for me at the ballpark. I asked forand receiveda transfer back to sports. I was doing another piece on the last day game at the old place, and I was in the dirt bowels of that poor old Erector set where many things, including skunks and raccoons, lived. I refused to leave. It might as well have been a water cooler. When you've got dirt on them, all the condescending good-ol'-boy stuff goes out the window. So do you know about sports?" I think how cool it is to watch a stadium yawn to life. All I remember is green and light and the security of my daddy's arms. The National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Football League barred women reporters from entering men's locker rooms when women first . 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. Maybe I'd never fit in. SAGAL: And is this something you always wanted to do? I stood in the Coliseums tunnel and was hesitant. Archival footage of Olson was used in the film, but Olson herself declined to participate in it.[13]. Before The Best American Sports Writing for that year was in bookstores, I went on a Thelma and Louise-type journey with a girlfriend. Financial Field that all the time for petty bullshit last thing I ever of... 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