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Things are probably going to change . . .
Before the NHL, NBA and MLB suspended their games due to the virus scare, they announced that the media wouldn’t be allowed in the locker room after games. Instead, players would be brought to an interview room.
Headline in the Washington Times – “Less Locker Room Access For Reporters May Become The Norm.”
Let’s be honest, locker rooms are germ factories, whether it’s in the local gym you go to, or in an NFL locker room.
Sometimes, I walk in there to talk to the players after practice, and they are taking off their sweaty garb, and you can almost smell the germs in the air – the air is thick and musty.
And just think about how NFL teams, especially late in season, have tons of players listed on their injury reports with “illness.”
One guys gets a flu in an NFL locker room, and then it spreads to several other guys.
Before a late November game against Houston, eight Patriots players were held out of practice with the flu. One players was seen in the locker room wearing a mask. The Patriots lost the game 28-22. So many players missing practice during the week definitely hurt their preparation.
You have wonder, that once things get back to normal, after this virus situation, whether there are going to be perminent changes to how all teams handle the media in the locker room.
Yes, locker rooms are going to be germ factories even without reporters in there, and there is probably no way around that, but why invite more germs in there if you don’t have to?
Plus players hate us being in their locker room. That is their office and it really bothers most of them that we are allowed in there, especially since they are often walking in their scantily clad.
The media-player relationship dynamic has gotten worse in recent years, especially with advent of clickbait. They think some of us in there to just cause trouble, get them to slip up and say something stupid to a trap question. Relationship between players and reporters has never been great, but it might be at an all-time low now.
So while the whole germ/virus thing is a very, very serious matter, it’s quite possible that some players, some union folks, and perhaps some team executives in the various pro sports, will go forward with limited or no locker room media access, even after things get back to normal.
I have heard some in the media say that that some leagues and teams will use the virus situation as an excuse, even when things get back to normal, to keep reporters out of locker rooms.
“The world will right itself one day and things will return to normal. Normal, though, may be a work without snakes, vermin and rats in the house of athletes,” wrote Thom Loverro of the Washington Times.
The NFL didn’t need to join in on the media edict set by the other leagues before suspending operations, because it’s going to be a while before NFL writers would go into locker rooms, anyway.
But you get the sense, moving forward, people are going to be more super-sensitive about germs and spreading them, and even the NFL will change things related to media in the locker room.
March 13, 2020
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