NFL players want to restrict reporters conducting locker room interviews, with one former player calling male reporters “straight meat watchers.”
“If only y’all knew how awkward some of the male reporters act,” former Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith said on X. “Straight meat watchers.”
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I can’t tell in what context “straight” is used here. Is it implying a specific orientation to reporters or is it being used as they “straight up watch”? Either way, it gets the point across — some players feel uncomfortable being interviewed in various states of dress.
“Now, this doesn’t bar you from the locker room. We can’t do that,” said Cincinnati Bengals offensive lineman Ted Karras and the team’s NFLPA union rep. “But what we want to do is get cameras off guys in private moments in our locker room.
“What brought it to light, really, was a couple of guys naked on camera this year. It has happened a few times in the history of the league.”
For now, the NFLPA wants post-practice interviews to be held outside the locker room and asks for the same on game days, but the NFL sets the rules, as Mark Maske of the Washington Post explains:
The NFL dropped its coronavirus protocols entirely and reopened locker rooms to accredited media members in advance of the 2022 season. For the past two seasons, reporters have had access to players in locker rooms following games and at teams’ practice facilities during the week. But the NFLPA has raised privacy concerns.
“We want to respect the players’ privacy to get dressed,” Calvin Watkins, a reporter for the Dallas Morning News who is the PFWA’s president, said by phone Thursday. “I don’t think any reporter wants to talk to a butt-naked player. However, there are already rules in place for the player to have privacy before doing the interview. We have reiterated that to the union.”
The current NFL media policy says player privacy in the locker room “is of paramount importance.” It calls for the shower area to be “screened from view” and says teams must supply players with “wraparound towels” or robes. Teams are “urged to take other measures,” such as placing a pair of shorts in each player’s locker or building individual locker curtains. A team communications staffer is to inform players and coaches when the locker room is about to be opened.
This is all about access balanced against a right to privacy. I have done interviews in locker rooms and it is awkward versus titillating. I was there to do a job and there were always players who showered after everyone else walking around naked or half-naked; even a monk would be distracted.
After the Denver Broncos won the Super Bowl in the 2015 season I stood a yard away from quarterback Peyton Manning as he changed at his locker. He suddenly dropped his pants and stood there in a jock strap mooning the crowd. It got awkward when a media member raised his camera to take a photo, only to be politely stopped by a Broncos employee.
There have been numerous cases over the years of cameras inadvertently catching players nude in the background (here’s an example from 1985 and one from 2015), which seems to be the crux of the issue.
Media members are not opposed to a change in where interviews are held, but don’t want a case where players duck out of the locker room via a back door and reporters are left interviewing nobody. Plus, some reporters find locker room interviews revealing in catching an athlete fresh after a game.
One player, San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk, was hoping reporter Grant Cohn could be given the boot, writing on X, “Maybe we can keep @grantcohn from always hanging around our lockers while we’re changing.” It was a cheap shot when you realize that Cohn seems to piss off Juszczyk for what he writes more than how he acts, leading Cohn to tweet this:
I can see both sides of the locker room access issue and think a compromise could be reached that works for the players and the media.
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