Erin Andrews and the Cubs locker room: Discuss

Well, next time I cover the WNBA or the LPGA, I'll be sure to sure spandex tights, a tank top and call them all "sexy."

 

Please don't. On all accounts.

 

Coulda been worse ... does the word "mankini" make you cringe?

 

You can't take shit at face value, which it sounds like you would have us do.

Don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you.

 

Then she's come a long way since her Fort Lauderdale days. Good for her.

 

And this "harmless touching" of the bicep, hugs, etc. ... In this day and age, if a guy did that in the office to a female employee, he'd have a sexual harassment complaint against him so fast his head would spin. Just saying ...

 

I think most of the women in the business could have filed dozens of suits, in that case, but we like our jobs and stuff is usually pretty harmless. And in my experience, at least, the problems are with fellow members of the media, not athletes.

I had a co-worker grab my behind on the way into a sexual harassment meeting to be funny, which it was, and I laughed, while my boss had a coronary. I've had my arm grabbed, I've been hugged maybe a little too long by creepy members of the media. I've had reporters say incredibly inappropriate things to me. I laugh and shrug it off. Maybe it should bother me more, but you just kind of deal with it.

Touching a guy's biceps? I don't know the context but he must have said something like, 'Can you believe these guns? Check it out!' I don't think she walked up and started fondling his arm. I'd like to know more before condemning someone like that. This is obviously a player Erin has known for a long time and has a friendly relationship with, it seems crazy to bash her for any of this.

 

Also, there was a male reporter on my beat once who touched players and the manager all the time. Hand on the back, pats on the behind, that kind of thing. That's not all that uncommon; there's one male beat writer known to put his hand on the manager's thigh during the manager's session. I think that's a little weird, but no one blinks. Seriously.

 

Sorry, last one: My fellow beat writer, Joe Stiglich of the Contra Costa Times, tells me that Jack Cust asks him to feel his biceps often. Joe does not believe that Jack is harassing him.

 

Susan, when every eye in the clubhouse is on you (and you know it), maybe you don't touch a player's arm? As someone who was around when this shitstorm first started in the late '70s, I'm surprised by your reaction. Some of the women who work beats regularly and have endured many shades of hell in the process absolutely hate when a female comes in and takes the flirting girlie girl approach. It was their belief that it makes things tougher for every other woman. I see their point more clearly than yours.

And, btw, I'm not sure she's being "bashed." As I said 10 pages or so ago, I thought Nadel wrote a column about an interesting scene in the clubhouse. I seem to recall reading a similar column from someone when Dick Vitale showed up in some team's clubhouse and was spreading his brand of bullshit, too.

 

Damn. Some debate, the depth of which is far too explosive for me to tackle.

On a wholly unrelated matter ...

If I ever make a petulant announcement that I'm leaving the board because I'm mad about someone else's anonymous posts, I hope someone does to me exactly what f_t did there.

 

Maybe we've gotten beyond the point where everything needs to be seen in the light of gender. I'm not advocating a girlie-flirty approach, I'm saying that maybe some knowledge of the relationship, which could go back a long way, would be useful, and some context. I don't know Erin at all, but I do know the easiest thing in the world to do is to accuse women reporters of unprofessional conduct without understanding the circumstances. If Chris Berman felt his biceps, as someone noted earlier, no one even notices.

I think in general people are more touchy-feely that they used to be. I don't know if that's a good thing, and again, I'm not advocating it, but it certainly seems to be the case, and as I said, not gender-specific. I'm very much against unprofessional conduct in the workplace - I just don't think this rises to that level.

Maybe Erin should realize every eye is on her - it probably is. But she's used to it, she obviously knows these players, and she isn't worried about it because she hasn't actually done anything wrong. And you'd hope most reporters would know right from wrong whether they're being watched or not.