Former Green Bay defensive lineman Reggie White didn't have a great 1998 in terms of his public pronouncements, and 1999 isn't starting out particularly great either, what with a poorly timed diatribe against female reporters in the locker room.
A portion of White's forthcoming book "Fighting the Good Fight" regarding his disdain for the presence of reporters of the opposite sex in locker rooms, was excerpted in last Thursday's Wall Street Journal, and it was almost as noxious as the anti-gay, anti-Hispanic, anti-Native American spew he put forth before a meeting of the Wisconsin legislature.
Some 21 years after a federal judge ruled that female reporters had just as much right to be in a locker room as male reporters, White is railing against the policy.
In his diatribe, White contends that male athletes shouldn't be forced to "walk around naked in front of women who aren't their wives," and extends his concern to WNBA players who have to face male reporters in various states of undress.
White further complains that an open locker-room policy could give female reporters and camerawomen the opportunity to film players showering or walking to their lockers naked.
"They can keep the film for themselves, make copies, give it to friends -- and who knows what else?" wrote White.
There are so many mistaken notions attached to White's "thinking," but let's try to address a few of them.
Let's start with the premise that a locker room full of sweaty, naked people -- male or female -- is necessarily a sexual turn-on. A reporter's presence in a locker room is a practical matter brought on by the combination of unrelenting deadlines, competition and the need for access, both before and after games. The overwhelming number of sportswriters and broadcasters I know find very little alluring about the locker room, and no one would be there unless they had to.
Secondly, no player in any sport is forced to walk around naked in a locker room. There are towels and bathrobes available to anyone who wants them, and most reporters gladly respect a player's desire for modesty.
And the notion that a photographer or camerawoman would collect pictures or videos of nude athletes and trade them is so laughable so as not to be taken seriously. However, what should be taken seriously is a particularly disgusting portion of White's article where he recounted the 1990 incident in which Lisa Olson, then a reporter for the Boston Herald, was sexually harassed by three New England Patriots, who deliberately exposed themselves to her while she waited in the locker room for an interview.
