Why are female reporters allowed in football players lockerrooms in the first place? Should they stay out?

[rare2findd]

Jets addressing alleged harassment of female reporter
By Doug Farrar


With all the hubbub about "Hard Knocks" and the season opener against the Baltimore Ravens on Monday Night Football, the New York Jets have something else to deal with -. Inés Sainz of the Mexican television network TV Azteca, claimed that she was harassed by players and coaches in practice and in the team's locker room last Saturday. From the New York Times:

The New York Post reported that during drills, Dennis Thurman, the team's defensive backs coach, purposely overthrew passes that landed near Sainz on the sideline. The Post also reported that linebacker Jason Taylor(notes) volunteered to join the defensive backs. Players also reportedly made sexually suggestive comments in the locker room after practice ... In a statement released by the Jets, Johnson stressed to Sainz that "he expects all members of the Jets organization to conduct themselves in a professional manner at all times."

Defensive tackle Kris Jenkins(notes) also reportedly told Sainz that "this is our locker room!" when another reporter asked Sainz if she was okay.

"I die of embarrassment!" Sainz wrote in Spanish on her Twitter account. "I am in the locker room of the Jets waiting for Mark Sanchez(notes) while trying not to look to anywhere!"

Team owner Woody Johnson has said that interviews with players and coaches will begin after the season opener as part of an investigation that also involves the league office. "Right now, we're working with the league and we're doing all the fact-finding, checking the facts, doing the interviews," Johnson said. "Interviews with the players will start [Tuesday]. We've talked to some of the non-players, but [Tuesday] we'll get into it all."


We take this very, very seriously, as you can imagine. We want all of our reporters, female or male, to be comfortable wherever they are, on the sideline, in the locker room or at a game. We have to make the working environment professional, representing the New York Jets well."

The Association for Women in Sports Media has filed a complaint on Sainz's behalf, and Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum has spoken with Joanne Gerstner of the organization.

Judy Battista is the NFL Editor for the New York Times, has been with the Times since 1998, has covered football in other markets, and is one of the more respected voices in the country's largest market, covering the country's most popular sport. Battista told me on Monday afternoon that as the alleged incident would have been ongoing, she was most surprised that the PR staff wouldn't have put a stop to whatever was supposedly going on.

Battista also said that she's never encountered such behavior from the players she's covered, and that she's not aware of any other female reporter (she estimates that there are at least four who cover the New York football teams on a regular basis) dealing with stuff like that. Another turn in this particular situation, according to Battista, is that the final practice before a game is one in which many media members do not attend.



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I am female age 24. College educated. I have a mind of my own. I enjoy a good football game.
But in reality, I think some of these female reporters are full of it. Why should they be allowed in men's locker rooms in te first place?
The complaints are warranted when they watch men come out of their showers with nothing on but a friggen towerl.
How would the like it if male reporters awaited females as they came out of showers?
Geez
Theyshould be banned. End of story.
The end.
sorry first poster but I do not agree.
Some of these female reporters just want some media attention. As I said, I am a female, age 24. Very open minded. But female reporters need to stop acting so friggen important. Stay outside the doors until the players come out.
Period.

[ezra]

they are in the locker rooms, because its their job to interview the players, just like its the players job to play football. Not everything is sexual you know.

[ĶιllŽøηє]

They are allowed, but sending female reporters in is an absolutely stupid thing to do.

The reporter herself is a moron. I'm not sure exactly what she expects guys to say to her when she goes in there.

[Dr. McNinja]

Usually it's not a big deal - they should limit access to actual reporters/journalists, which would have eliminated Sainz from being permitted access.

[mikey]

It doesn't make it any more right. The Jets as a franchise, it's players, coaches, owner, and fans are nothing but trash.

[jhuss1256]

Equal Rights! Sports Illustrated reporter Melissa Ludtke had a run-in. When Major League Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn prohibited Ludtke from interviewing players in the locker room during the 1977 World Series, SI publisher Time Inc., filed a lawsuit. The following year, a U.S. federal judge ruled that male and female reporters should have equal access to the locker room. By the mid 1980s, all four major professional sports leagues (NFL, NHL, NBA, Major League Baseball) had adopted policies in compliance with the U.S. court ruling on equal access, and female sports reporters had become more commonplace in the locker room. Nonetheless, several of these women learned that, while they were allowed into the locker room, they were not welcomed there. "Changing the rules doesn't necessarily alter attitudes," Ludtke observed.

[Panama Joe]

Why shouldn't women write about sports, too? These athletes are a bunch of spoiled, privileged multimillionaires with the manners of goats, and the morality of Dick Cheney. How dare these pigs treat this person, who actually works for a living this way?

edit: I'm dumb? According to the owner of the team, the guys went out of their way to expose their genitals to this young Latina, asking her obscene questions, and you know what I mean. That's why the team and the owners issued an open apology. They acknowledge that the men were pigs, or is it the other way around?

[hotjam6]

Panama Joe is dumb. This is how men in men's locker room act, like ANIMALS. This isn't The Lion King where animals hold hands and sing songs. She dressed like a slut to advance her career but cries foul when they hit on her. If a male reporter was in a women's locker room, he would spend 10 years in prison and be a lifetime member of the sexual offender club.

EDIT: Panama Joe, it doesn't matter what apology they issued. They were forced by their PR. If you actually believe they meant it, then you just provided proof that you're dumb. BP went out of their way in their first week after the oil spill saying that it wasn't a big deal, but I bet you believe that too. Also look up former quarterback Ryan Leaf's apology.

[Doug]

They shouldn't be allowed in the locker rooms. It's men's football. Some women (not all) use this set-up to tease the players, then become angered by responses that shouldn't be at all surprising. Go cover women's tennis, or WNBA.

[James]

if equal rights was to be the question, then wouldnt males be allowed in female locker rooms for the wnba or any female sports for that matter. there is no reason a female should be allowed inside of a male locker room.