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. If you can do that, they will accept you with open arms, and, actually, be on their best manners when you talk to them. In my three years away, I'd shed a husband, a house, a lot of weight, and a collection of unhealthy habits. She has covered sports stories in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Japan, China, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. SAGAL: Absolutely. 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: 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. But a little girl with blonde pin curls somehow slipped into the line of succession. Pearlman is a household name when it comes to sportswriters, and Long is one of the most beloved Philadelphia athletes in recent memory. So is it awkward for you? ", Next to the entry door, there was a large poster of a shirtless Ruben Sierra. 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. They've both seen Patriot missiles up close." SAGAL: All right. 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. 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. The week after the Olson incident, Sam Wyche, coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, was fined one week's salary -- about $29,000 -- for refusing to let a female reporter in his locker room. Later that year, Olson and Sam Marchiano were reportedly subjected to a profanity-laced verbal tirade by New York Yankees pitcher David Wells when they approached him at his home to comment on his sudden trade to the Toronto Blue Jays for Roger Clemens. SAGAL: Or C, Benjamin Franklin became the first and only member thrown out because of his horrible morals? Of course, Rader would have spat corn at anybody. Pearlman is a household name when it comes to sportswriters, and Long is one of the most beloved Philadelphia athletes in recent memory. It gets a lot worse than the predictable . And I know how smartass remarks work, too. I was in some pretty heavy company. SALIE: Do you have a minute for me, coach? 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. Gayle had heard the Fort Worth Star-Telegram higher-ups had had a meeting that morning regarding my continuedor discontinuedemployment. TAFOYA: Let me tell you about my first time. The Mavericks pose an entirely different set of problems. Like a son telling his mom, Way to go, you made me proud.. I broke several stories, one of which won a national award for investigative sports reporting. The following year, a federal judge struck down the MLB policy on 14th Amendment grounds. I told her I hadn't heard about it, but would let her know, assuring her I would be the last to know if I had been fired. 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. It was time to go back to the dream. It was critical no one smelled fear or I'd lose respect from the get-go. Donna is a good argument for euthanasia. July 27, 1997 Seven years ago, Zeke Mowatt flashed himself at Lisa Olson, who was then a reporter for the Boston Herald, and the great locker room debate erupted. Ken Dryden of the Montreal Canadiens talks to reporters in the locker room circa 1975 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It may have been his first night. Ludtke said she constantly reminded people that she never demanded to go in a locker room. It was ", OK, so game over and time to head back down to the clubhouse. Please enter valid email address to continue. I mean, I know how penises work. SAGAL: And some of the players were like, wait a minute, we don't want girls in here. Ludtke said when That's something he'd say to anyone, I realized. He was home and reading stuff on the wire, as we called it at the time. Female sports reporters reveal the dark side to sport locker rooms FEMALE sports reporters reveal the dark side of reporting on male-dominated sports. Team dressing rooms are typically open to journalists before or after practices and games. Locker rooms are overrated. I know people make sexual comments to one another, and they are not always inappropriate. We understood the importance this held.. 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. He said he wanted to talk. Eagles rookie Jordan Davis explains biggest culture shock coming from Georgia to Philly, Former Eagle Chris Long praises Philly culture, sends message to current athletes, Rumor: Eagles locker room sold on Jalen Hurts, should be good for next week, DeVonta Smith explains McDonalds breakfast ritual to GQ, follows in Donovan McNabbs footsteps, Weekend Rips: The Declaration of Independence is one of many reminders of European inferiority, Sixers Have Shown Interest in Kings Stretch Big, Nemanja Bjelica, Eagles place 4 players on Reserve/COVID-19 list. So what? Still, most professional athletes also realize that allowing journalists into their sanctuary is a part of the job. Its a bizarre world that weve come to live in. I've always considered the real hurdle of all this to be players' perception of me, not suppressing my thoughts. Some readers had similar problems accepting a woman. 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. But then Donna likes the men she meets at Baja. Up until then, my assignments had been small-time: high school games and features on father-daughter doubles teams and Hacky Sack demonstrations. 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? Long goes on to mention how most reporters would brush his concerns aside, which would honestly drive me nuts. Archival footage of Olson was used in the film, but Olson herself declined to participate in it.[13]. He. It might as well have been a water cooler. Prove to them you know your stuff, and you will have proven to them why you belong there. By Adrienne Jones. During the incident, Ms. Olson said a group of naked players crowded around her to. But its the same answers to the same questions.. Now, there are no F-bombs. He got an apology from the Hyatt; I got suspected of prostitution while waiting in a hotel lobby for Grant Teaff. The media circus surrounding professional sports is fed in part by this particularly odd sort of press access. I should have told him how sad it was that he had to rub his own. Herman, though, found herself a part of a much larger moment, a wider-ranging battle for equality in the workplace for women. The realities of the corporate world and the attitudes of Texas high school and college coaches quickly clouded my idealistic vision of a quick ascent from 18-year-old ball-girl phenom to big-league ace baseball writer. Here's your last question. Nope, in fact, I was invisible. I was creative and funny, but I just couldn't write, they'd concluded. I was close to giving up. But the point is that you don't even think much about people being naked after a while, and unless you have some peculiar reason for remembering, you don't know who you have seen naked because they all kind of waltz in and out of the shower naked, just one wet butt covered with soap film after another. She was previously a sports columnist for the New York Daily News, and the first female sports columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald, where she covered rugby union, Australian rules football, cricket and rugby league. He joked, he smiled, and he was a great first for me. Olson sued the team, and the players she implicated were fined by the NFL after its own investigation. I helped cover the team for the Associated Press. If you dont understand that, particularly as a woman, you might misinterpret it.. The executive types weren't too hot on the idea. A kidI mean, really a kidstarted telling me women had no business in the locker room. 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 latter are supposed to be more humorous than the former, though adulthood has taught me different. 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. Your job is sort of provide on-field commentary. The NFL is condemning remarks made by Washington Redskins running back Clinton Portis concerning female reporters in the locker room. Tipped off to my presence, the coach broke into a near run when I headed toward him in the hall. Herman was a hockey reporter covering the New York Islanders when she and another female reporter were allowed to interview players in the locker room as their male counterparts were commonly permitted to do . 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. Several of the writers said, "I wonder what's up with that.". 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. Answer (1 of 4): After reading Carrie Rickey's answer, I have to say that no one ever gets this story right. It is one thing not to look at your notepad, but another not to be able to look straight ahead without a big clothesline of boy parts. 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. 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. I got nothing left. SAGAL: How do you talk about sports for five hours without boring yourself to death? Except she. I complained. TAFOYA: I think one of the most - and again, I won't name names - but I remember doing an NBA game, and I was asked to go interview a player's wife in the stands about something. 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. One night in the stands, I had my Helen-Keller-at-the-well experience. I asked Reggie, as everyone watched and listened. She had few female colleagues in sports media to lean on. Steam Food Of Industry. Or like Brandon Grahams locker is next to mine, and he has 40 reporters around him, and someone is bumping into my naked ass. TAFOYA: All right, Daniel. Locker room interviews that take place after professional sports . So do you know about sports?" 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. The Lisa Olson Incident, 20 Years Later: Today is the 20th anniversary of the Lisa Olson incident in the New England Patriots locker room, when the female Boston Herald sportswriter was sexually harassed by players Zeke Mowatt, Robert Perryman and Michael Timpson. 2023 Vimeo.com, Inc. All rights reserved. We may earn a commission from links on this page. Hey, this is pretty cool, I thought. The old Never let them see you sweat adage was thrown out the window and I was dripping angst from my brow. He was from Venezuela or the Dominican Republic, and guys from way south of here often start their careers as young as 16 or so. Olson is a member of the Baseball Writers' Association of America and is a Hall of Fame voter. 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