I explained again that I was a sportswriter waiting for Grant Teaff and pointed out other reporters, all men, around the lobby. She was a member of the first class of women at Princeton University. According to NBCChicago.com, Harris believes both members of the media and athletes should conduct themselves in a professional manner - gender aside. SAGAL: All right. I just wanted to cover sports. So is it awkward for you? Some nights I walk out the back door where all the wives are waiting, and they stare at me strangely, as though they think I'm the woman Cosmo warned them about or something. After a while, you just get used to nakedness and its all business. 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. Friends at Bible study ask if the players are mean to me. Those memories dont come cheap, of course. The MBL, NBA and NFL followed shortly after, and in 1990 all associations allowed women in the locker rooms. SAGAL: B, according to the club rules, quote, "at the point in their menstrual cycle when they are least likely to attract bears," unquote. I'm a general assignment sports reporter now, which means I do whatever they ask of me. 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. "Jenn," my friend told me, "I guess you rate a towel now.". A large portion of a reporter's job is coverage of cultural aspects. (She had tried to do the same thing at the Boston Globe, but could not get past security.) Acceptance will be given if you represent your profession in the highest degree. Alabama Phenix. 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 old Never let them see you sweat adage was thrown out the window and I was dripping angst from my brow. Its a mind-numbing thing to experiencegetting complete wrapped up in a job and not noticing the other stuff around you. 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. So what? SAGAL: But I want to know how you got from there. It is the sports leagues and teams that decided interviews were to be TAFOYA: Oh, gosh. Api. I should have told him how sad it was that he had to rub his own. During my first four years at the Star-Telegram I took one day off to model at an auto show and five days off to get married. You see, folks in the world of sports weren't used to working with a "fee-male." This was baptism by back draft, not fire. But the most moving were the ones who said something along the lines of, "Well, I just want you to know, if I ever had anything to do with any of that, I'm sorry. I asked forand receiveda transfer back to sports. New York Times hockey reporter Robin Herman was a trailblazer, breaking down gender barriers by becoming the first female journalist to interview players inside a men's professional sports locker room in the U.S. On Tuesday, her husband former Times editor Paul Horvitz told the newspaper that she passed away from ovarian cancer. Near the field, I can see it is Al Newman and somebody. Teams and leagues barred female reporters from locker rooms over the following decades, robbing them of an increasingly important access point for player interviews. "Can I stand here with y'all for a while?" "Are you going to talk to me or not?" Or maybe into public relations. Gardner is considered a pioneer in sports broadcasting, having been the first female sports anchor to appear weekly on a major network. Report", Jackie MacMullan reported that the fines were never actually collected from the players. 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. "Can I talk to you for a minute," I said. 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. 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. Covering major league baseball fulltime is my goal. After five years as a sports reporter, she moved on to write about science and health, leaving the rest of the battle to others. A new generation of sports writers has responded to this shift by increasingly using advanced metrics and digital tools to change the genre entirely. If you can do that, they will accept you with open arms, and, actually, be on their best manners when you talk to them. "You know," I thought, "I doubt if any of them read the Observer.". 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. My aim as a writer is to make the people I cover seem human to the readers. I asked. I was nervous the first time I entered the Rangers locker room, about seven years ago. Men treated like animals yet again. The latter are supposed to be more humorous than the former, though adulthood has taught me different. If I never went in a locker room, it would have been fine with me, Ludtke said. My most innocent comments were greeted with sexual innuendo. I asked one more time interrupting. One of the most famous all-male gentlemen's clubs in London was the Reform Club with the fictional Phineas Fogg started and ended his trip around the world in 80 days. 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. Had all that I'd put up with just been for nothing? So you've been in the Mavericks locker room? Reporters do not need to be in the locker room. Power your marketing strategy with perfectly branded videos to drive better ROI. I almost said matter-of-factly, "You know, Kenny, you've got a fine head of hair." ", He started yelling again in this really high voice. It was mostly worn, ectoplasm-green indoor-outdoor carpetingand stares. The rumor was bogus, but it planted an idea. agree wrote: If a male reporter went into the womens locker room, all hell would break loose. That's something he'd say to anyone, I realized. Then there was Everson Griffen, an underclassman defensive end who will be a big name next year and eventually on Sundays. 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 stood in the Coliseums tunnel and was hesitant. The Mavericks were a delight to be around even when pissed off. Ines Sainz, a reporter for Mexico's TV Azteca doing a story on quarterback Mark Sanchez, had footballs thrown in her direction by a Jets coach during practice, and players later called out to her in the team's locker room. So why are they going to think the reporter is any different at first? I admit, some days even the UPS guy looks awful good. SAGAL: Here's your first question. I was one of the guys. 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. His voice was growing louder. Property. 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. 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. But I must tell you, I find that being a reporter is so much easier than being a fan. We shagged foul balls, but in retrospect, I guess we were more decorative than functional. [9] TAFOYA: a player sitting next to him says, ma'am, could you just turn around and let the man put a towel on? 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. 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. [6] The general manager of the team was fired. Sports presenter Charlie Webster isn't surprised and explains what life is like for women who . More than two years ago, I told the sports editor I wanted to return to sports. After the initial averting of my eyes, I noticed a member of USCs staff naked as well, and it then occurred to me; after you see one naked butt, they all start to look the same. I don't like the double-standard we have with male-female divide. As one of the first female reporters to be allowed inside the NFL locker room, she has been a pioneer in her field. "OK, you mean you've talked to Troy Aikman, and you didn't notice what a hunk he is?". And yes, he gave me a pat on the shoulder afterwards. There are plenty of women who have guy friends and have no ulterior motive in the friendshipcontrary to popular belief, women and men can co-habitate in extreme conditions. It was supposed to be about the fact that I had some negative things to say about my early work environment. I've never been on any campaign to debunk the myth that testicles are somehow inherent to a full understanding of balls. As I stood outside the locker room, it hit me like a lightning boltwait a minute, Bill Plaschke was in there getting killer quotes and I wasnt! Except she. When men gather at bars and golf courses and any of the other traditional salt licks for male bonding, do they ask the gynecologist what Mrs. Holcombe's hooters look like? SAGAL: Now, why is that because being a reporter seems like a hard job? I don't have a radio talk show yet, but I now make my living writing about sportsat the moment, mostly the Texas Rangers. They will look at her as one of the guys if she doesn't act like a chick. (I'm serious, they really ask this. One of my greatest honors. They knew I could write even the most boring stuff into something of interest. I was creative and funny, but I just couldn't write, they'd concluded. 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. Several of the writers said, "I wonder what's up with that.". They see how (or if) players interact; get some idea as to who's happy, who's not, and maybe find out why or why not. 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. We understood the importance this held.. Pearlman is a household name when it comes to sportswriters, and Long is one of the most beloved Philadelphia athletes in recent memory. Gayle had heard the Fort Worth Star-Telegram higher-ups had had a meeting that morning regarding my continuedor discontinuedemployment. Ill never forget the first time I entered that forbidden place called the players locker room. Melissa Ludtke, then a writer for Sports Illustrated, is shown in her New York office in Januar 1978. We all just kind of deal with it, says Jenni Carlson, a columnist for The Oklahoman and self-described shorter person who fights to see and hear her often giant interview subjects. Debunk the myth that testicles are somehow inherent to a full understanding balls! Pioneer in her new York office in Januar 1978 because being a fan the same thing the... Room, about seven years ago, I realized about my early work environment locker rooms experiencegetting wrapped! 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