Female sports reporters reveal the horrifying sexual attacks they endure on the job: ‘Everyone watched and laughed’

Kristie Ackert was just embarking on a new job as a Mets beat writer for the New York Daily News in 2013 when she caught the eye of a relentlessly flirtatious baseball player.  

She’d go on to win the Dick Young Award for excellence in baseball reporting, but at that time, her ‘rookie’ status in the clubhouse left her feeling powerless to stop the increasingly awkward interactions until it was too late.

‘He was flirting with me and bit me on my bare arm,’ Ackert told the Daily Mail, stressing that she ‘was not participating’ in the flirting.

‘I didn’t know what to do,’ said Ackert, who never reported the misconduct. ‘I don’t want to rat people out because… I don’t want to be the one that’s always constantly complaining about how I’m being treated. You just want to do your job.’

The unwanted bite didn’t draw any blood, but she said the reactions of her fellow reporters remain a painful, lingering memory for Ackert: ‘The whole group of my colleagues stood there and watched it and said nothing . [They] actually laughed… Honestly, it took me years to realize that was not really my fault. That was wrong and they shouldn’t have sat there and laughed at it.’

All award-winning journalists with more than 30 years’ experience, Ackert, Newsday columnist Barbara Barker and Boston Globe columnist Tara Sullivan shared similarly painful stories to the Daily Mail about their early days in the industry. They also described vastly improved working conditions, rarer instances of discrimination, and equal locker room access for both male and female reporters – something guaranteed by the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment.

There are still awkward moments, like Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson’s ostensibly menacing response to a critical question from CBS Sports’ Aditi Kinkhabwala (both have since admitted they could have handled the exchange differently). But in speaking with the Daily Mail, Ackert, Barker and Sullivan recalled far more misconduct from male journalists than the players and coaches they interviewed.

‘Honestly, I think I’ve experienced more sexism from colleagues,’ Ackert said. ‘100 percent.’

Sullivan, for one, found herself in a verbal altercation with a rival reporter from another paper when she noticed him watching pornography on his laptop in the Yankee Stadium press box.

‘He accused me of reading his screen and that I was in the wrong,’ Sullivan told the Daily Mail. ‘And some of the colleagues at that time stood up for him. They tried to make me feel like I had done something wrong.’

Barker, too, recalled flirty players looking for dates with young female reporters. But it was the behavior of journalists – like the older columnist who suggested she remove her shirt for a staff photo – that were more egregious in her eyes.

‘This kind of stuff happened all the time, and it was much more from fellow sportswriters than it really was from players,’ Barker said.

In one incident from the early days of her career at Chicago’s Wrigley Field, Barker recalled being ushered into the Phillies clubhouse by some Philadelphia reporters only to be faced with furious players outraged at her mere presence.

‘The writers kind of set me up,’ she told the Daily Mail. ‘I guess no woman had ever been in their locker room, and when I went in, people started yelling at me, throwing stuff at me. It was horrible. I just turned around and walked out.’

This was still the mid-1980s – several years after Sports Illustrated’s Melissa Ludtke successfully sued Major League Baseball for denying her access to the New York Yankees’ clubhouse during the 1977 World Series. (See: 14th Amendment)

But despite Ludtke’s victory, the trail blazed by baseball reporter Claire Smith, and columnist Christine Brennan’s work for the Association for Women in Sports Media (AWSM), rampant sexism remained in sports. 

And it wasn’t just the guys in the press box.

The most infamous incident occurred in 1990, when several New England Patriots players were accused of harassing the Boston Herald’s Lisa Olson during a locker-room encounter. One player allegedly fondled his genitals in front of Olson while another was accused of doing the same behind her back.

But the Patriots scandal somehow ignited criticism against Olson and other women in sports media. Less than a month later, Cincinnati Bengals coach Sam Wyche got support from sports columnists and his own players for his decision to ban USA Today’s Denise Tom from the locker room.

‘I don’t like women in the locker room at all,’ Bengals running back James Brooks told reporters at the time. ‘They don’t play football and get hit, and they ask stupid questions anyhow.’

Fans were even worse. As she confirmed to the Daily Mail, Olson faced death threats, her tires were slashed, someone broke into her apartment to write ‘b****’ on her wall, fans punched her and she once had a beer poured on her at Boston Garden – all in the name of a football team that finished 1-15.

Assigned to cover the fallout in Foxborough, Massachusetts, Barker witnessed fans trying desperately to humiliate and physically harm Olson.

‘This is at old Foxborough,’ Barker said, referring to the demolished venue once known as Sullivan Stadium. ‘You’d walk out onto the field to get to the locker room, and I’m following and talking with her.

‘This this is one of the most vivid memories I have. People are throwing s*** at us, punching at her. All of a sudden, someone throws a disgusting blow up doll that’s naked. It lands at her feet.

‘There’s a sign [on the doll] that says: “F*** me, I’m Lisa,”‘ Barker continued. ‘I look down, and I just burst into tears… She’s stoic. I could have never did what she did.’

A 60-page report filed by a Harvard Law professor on behalf of then-NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue found Olson was ‘degraded and humiliated’ by the Patriots players. The team, tight end Zeke Mowatt and two other players were fined as a result of that probe, although award-winning Boston Globe reporter Jackie MacMullan later reported those fines were never collected from the players.

Olson rarely talks publicly about the incident and politely declined to speak to the Daily Mail about it. However, she did reveal the small settlement she agreed to with the players and team went towards a sports journalism scholarship. She also received an apology from then-Patriots owner Victor Kiam.

Coaches, too, have presented obstacles for women. 

In 2021, fired Mets manager Mickey Callaway was accused in The Athletic of sexually harassing female reporters over a five-year period with New York, Cleveland and the Los Angeles Angels. He allegedly sent unsolicited and inappropriate photos to journalists, thrusted his crotch near the face of a woman who was interviewing him, and made unwanted advances to others.

Ackert said she remembers other disturbing behavior, like Callaway placing his hand on female reporters’ shoulders when he’d answer their questions.

‘Mickey came in kind of condescending,’ Ackert said. ‘I was like: “I don’t really know you. Why are you touching me?”‘

Ackert raised the issue with the team and that problem was solved. Still, Callaway remained unusually sensitive to disparagement from women, Ackert recalled.

In 2018, when she criticized his overuse of the bullpen, Callaway tried to poke fun of the article in front of her male colleagues, none of whom picked up on the joke.

‘It apparently really pissed him off,’ Ackert said. ‘And so he came out to the dugout, where all the writers were standing… He says: “Hey, have you seen the latest numbers on bullpen usage?” And since he didn’t get any other writer to kind of pick up on it, he called me into the office and yelled at me. It was hilarious.’

Following The Athletic piece, Callaway was fired by the Angels, which joined the Mets and Guardians in condemning his behavior. He was placed on MLB’s ineligible list for two years and expressed remorse for his conduct.

Asked about the claims made by Ackert, Callaway offered the following statement to the Daily Mail via email: ‘I will continue to pray for a hedge of protection over all women, I trust God to see the truth and judge righteously. I surrender this battle to Him.’

Organizations have also presented issues for female reporters.

Sullivan was working for New Jersey’s Bergen Record at the 2011 Masters when she was blocked from entering the players’ locker room at Augusta National Golf Club, where Rory McIlroy was addressing her male colleagues.

‘It was a nondescript security guard, who happened to be a female,’ Sullivan said. ‘It was just because of what the Master’s history was at the time at Augusta National Golf Club. They had an exclusionary membership policy that didn’t allow women. It was just sort of this natural leap from that. The security guard made the mistake.’

Sullivan received an apology from organizers, who publicly blamed a ‘misunderstanding,’ and the club would add its first female member, ex-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the following year.

However, Sullivan’s ordeal in Augusta also signaled a changing attitude within sports media. The Golf Writers Association of America took up the issue with the club, and perhaps more importantly, one of Sullivan’s colleagues stepped up to help in the moment.

‘Bill Plaschke was the last guy [into the locker room] and said: “I’ll give you everything I get in there,”‘ Sullivan said, referring to the decorated Los Angeles Times columnist.

There have been some unfortunate situations in recent years, like in 2017, when then-Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton responded to a reporter’s question on his receivers by telling her it was ‘funny to hear a female talk about routes.’

Even today, Sullivan and Ackert notice security guards inspecting their credentials far more closely than their male counterparts.

‘Men could walk in with crayon written on there and they’ll still stop and grab a woman’s credential,’ Ackert said.

Then there is the perception among some rival reporters that female journalists lure in sources with femininity rather than their own guile.

‘There are nasty comments, not necessarily said to me, but around me,’ Ackert added. ‘Whenever you would have a good source, they would always question why you had that good source.’

But things are undeniably better, as Barker, Sullivan and Ackert all stressed.

Barker credits forward-thinking executives like late NBA commissioner David Stern and current NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, who fought with teams to ensure equal locker-room access for female journalists.

She’s also thankful to several fair-minded New York Knicks greats like Patrick Ewing and Charles Oakley, the latter of whom would invite her into the trainer’s room for private chats just to irritate her male rivals.

‘He just wanted to drive the other writers nuts,’ Barker laughed. ‘We wouldn’t even talk about anything.’

All three also pointed to the impact at home, where younger generations of male athletes and coaches have seen their mothers as professionals rather than strictly homemakers.

‘I think that the younger the players have gotten, the less of an issue it is because the younger generations are thankfully more accustomed to equity and workplace probably grew up more so in two-parent working households,’ Sullivan said.

Best of all, younger generations of reporters aren’t encountering the same obstacles many others once did.

Olson, who now works as a professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, is particularly heartened by what her students have experienced in the NFL.

‘We’ve had many smart and capable young women in our sports journalism program at ASU Cronkite, and those who cover the NFL have been treated exactly the same as male reporters. With respect and professionalism,’ she told the Daily Mail. ‘That is all we’ve ever asked!’