Leslie Visser is one of the pioneers when it comes to sports journalism in print and on the broadcast side.
The CBS Sports broadcaster went back to her roots Tuesday, writing a column for the Boston Globe, her former employer, on experiences with harassment and what women have had to deal with in the field of sports journalism.
Visser told one story of interviewing then-Baltimore Colts quarterback Bert Jones:
Anyone remember Bert Jones? A legend out of LSU, he was following iconic Johnny Unitas as quarterback for the Baltimore Colts. After a game in Foxborough against the Patriots, he asked me if I’d like to come to Baltimore. He offered to send me a round-trip ticket. I went into my Gloria Steinem routine, “Absolutely Not! This is my job!” He finally cut me off with a laugh and said, “Hey, you’re not that great anyway.”
It wasn’t only the players who took an unfortunate tone with the first woman to cover the NFL as a beat — in 1976 for the Globe:
At training camp, I ventured my first question to coach Chuck Fairbanks. He looked at me like Vulcan, the Roman god of fire. “What?” he said. I repeated my question about a linebacker. Fairbanks narrowed his eyes and said, “Why don’t you go to lunch with my daughter? You’re about the same age.”
Abominable and unacceptable.
Visser says women need three elements to succeed, knowledge, passion and stamina — but no one prepares you for humiliation.
She says times have come a long way from the days when, “The credentials I wore, with no irony, said, “No Women or Children in the Press Box.” Without a ladies room in said press box, I’d have to take the elevator down and sprint across the field like Usain Bolt to find the public restroom and try to get back before the Patriots punted.”
But there remains a long ways to go.