Ines Sainz: 10 Reasons It's Time To Close Locker Rooms To Reporters

Sainz isn't the reason it's time to close the locker room, but she was the catalyst for the discussion.

For those who don't know, Ines Sainz is the reporter for Azteca who recently filed a sexual harassment complaint against the New York Jets for their behavior towards her. 

Sainz claims she had footballs thrown at her by Jets coaches on the field, and that players were instructed to conduct drills in such a way that they would "accidentally" bump into her. Then, upon entering the locker room, she received catcalls and inappropriate statements from various members of the team. 

This incident has brought a number of issues to the surface, including appropriate dress and female reporters in male locker rooms. But the larger issue that has only been casually mentioned by the media is reporters' place in any locker room in the first place. 

Do members of the media even need to be in the locker room? Here are 10 reasons why they don't. 

10. Not Having Reporters In the Locker Rooms Benefits a Team's Level Of

If you don't think she would distract a football player, you're absolutely wrong.

I'm not talking about the issues presented by female reporters alone here, we're dealing with reporters of both genders. 

While female reporters create a distraction due to their attractiveness, reporters of all genders can prove distracting. What if there's a scandal? Do you think players like having reporters sticking recorders and cameras in their faces while they're trying to get ready for a game? Or when they're trying to rest a bit after a grueling performance? 

I can tell you from experience that they don't. If they didn't have to worry about reporters waiting for them right before and right after games, their level of play would probably increase. 

9. The Real World Doesn't Allow It

Businessmen don't have reporters following them into board meetings; why should athletes?

Picture this: The CEO of a Fortune 500 company has just been embroiled in a major scandal. He has a press conference scheduled for Thursday, but Wednesday morning, he enters a board meeting to find the board room full of reporters. Some of them are attractive women, most are unattractive men. As soon as they see him, he's bombarded with questions, flashbulbs, and microphones. 

This would never happen, would it? So why is it OK for it to take place in sports? 

8. It Would Give the Team Privacy

Taking reporters out of the locker rooms would allow teams a measure of privacy.

Athletes are unique from the rest of the world in a lot of ways, most notably the fact that they do their jobs entirely in the public eye. On top of their games or matches, they have sponsorship requirements, interview requests, photo shoots, and autograph signings. 

Why shouldn't they be given a space where they can have a modicum of privacy? We as normal Americans get that, why shouldn't they?

7. We're Oversaturated Enough As It Is

With all the coverage we get now, do we really need to know what's going on in the locker room?

We as a society are constantly inundated with useless information. The media has more access to players, coaches, and executives than at any other point in history. But is that really a good thing? 

Allowing reporters into the locker room simply enables those reporters to gain nothing of value to a story. It provides us with information we do not need, and in many instances do not want. So, if reporters don't gain anything from locker room interviews, why are they there?

6. The International Nature of Sport

In many countries, this is viewed as an acceptable way for a reporter to dress.

In the United States, there are rules. To be a reporter on television, one must adhere to a certain dress code. You must have a suit on, regardless of gender, and you cannot show too much skin. While female anchors and reporters are typically attractive, they tend to dress tastefully when on camera. 

However, anyone who has watched a sports show in Italy, Mexico, Spain, or many other countries knows that in the rest of the world, those rules don't apply. Female reporters in particular often blatantly flaunt their sexuality through revealing or form-fitting clothes, and are on their shows solely for sex appeal. While I wouldn't go so far as to call it unprofessional, you can see it from there. 

The fault for this lies with the networks, not the reporters themselves. But, either way, if they cannot learn to dress appropriately, the only alternative is to close the locker room completely. 

5. It's Inappropriate

Regardless of whether they look like this or not, having reporters in the locker room is inappropriate.

How many times have you turned on ESPN or another sports network, and seen the players being interviewed while wearing a towel? How did that make you feel? 

In the age of television, reporters entering the locker room typically means that the rest of the country gets to look at naked men in towels. While I'm sure there are a good number of people of both genders who aren't complaining too loudly about that, the rest of us just feel awkward when we see it. And if we feel awkward, imagine how the reporters covering the event must feel, surrounded by naked men. 

The best way to end the awkwardness? Close the locker room. 

4. It Creates an Environment For Trouble

It's not her fault, but she's not helping the problem, either.

As much as I hate to say it, this one falls mostly on the female reporters. 

Let's face it, most athletes are childish and immature. They're typically not the most well spoken people on the face of the Earth, and many resemble the frat guys from college, who loved hooting and hollering at cute girls. 

When they're in a large group of their peers, they feel comfortable, and emboldened to do things they wouldn't do if they were by themselves. 

So when an attractive woman walks into their space (the locker room), the likelihood of them saying or doing something offensive goes up exponentially. 

This doesn't excuse the behavior when it happens, but it's also the way things are. While we've made some progress over the years, it still happens. The best way to stop it is to remove the causes. And since no one wants to ban women from the locker room, we're going to ban everyone. 

3. Do They Need To Be There?

When it comes down to it, there is no reason she, or any one else should be in the locker room.

We've established that locker room interviews bring nothing to the table in terms of content, and that they tend to border on inappropriate in terms of the players' dress. 

So, why do they need to be there? There doesn't seem to be a good reason to allow reporters into the locker room. If it's not bringing anything to the table, why not just do away with them? 

2. The Double Standard

If I can't go in her locker room, why can she go in mine?

This is the biggest reason why we should close locker rooms off entirely. Female reporters are allowed in men's locker rooms, but male reporters cannot set foot in women's locker rooms. Regardless of your take on reporters in locker rooms, this is one of the worst double standards in sports. 

Why do women get to come in men's locker rooms, but men can't go into women's? Is it because people think men shouldn't see women naked, but a women can see a man? 

Assuming there won't be a breakthrough in men entering Maria Sharapova's locker room anytime soon, the only solution is to keep all reporters out of all locker rooms. Seems fair, right?

1. There Are Alternatives Now

Time to move away from the locker room interview.

30 years ago, locker room interviews were necessary in order to be a functional journalist. Players and managers didn't have to do press conferences after every game, and often left the stadium as quickly as possible. So the only time to catch them was in the locker room. 

Now? Every professional sports team in the U.S., and most soccer clubs in Europe have press conferences after everything. If you want to talk to a particular player one-on-one, request it, and the team will, in all likelihood, grant your request. 

Worried about losing juicy quotes? Clearly you haven't been paying attention to modern press conferences much lately. All the information you get by entering the locker room can also be gotten outside of the locker room. With so many alternatives available, why not just end the awkwardness and close the locker room?