NFL players push back on media interviews in their locker rooms

(NEW YORK) — The NFL locker room is filled with intense emotions, from euphoric athletes celebrating victories to those coping with the pain of defeat. For players, reporters and fans, there’s nothing like being there in the thick of those post-game moments.

However, some NFL players are calling for a “timeout” on reporters conducting locker room interviews.

“If only y’all knew how awkward some of the male reporters act,” former wide receiver Torrey Smith wrote in an X post earlier this month. “Straight meat watchers.”

Some players want to move interviews outside the locker rooms to protect players’ privacy and dignity in the space where they shower and change.

“Well, we’ve had some instances where guys have been naked, and it’s been sent unchecked and unedited,” Lloyd Howell Jr., executive director of the NFL Players Association, said of the situation. “We’ve had hot mics where things have been captured that were never meant to be captured.”

One example is a 2015 Cincinnati Bengals locker room interview that aired on NFL Network, where players could be seen in the background of the broadcast removing towels and changing their clothes.

The Bengals recently said that they will no longer conduct interviews inside their locker room and will instead meet reporters in a different location. The decision came after the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) released a statement urging the league to “make immediate changes” to its media policy.

“Over the past three years, the NFLPA has worked to collaborate with the NFL and the Pro Football Writers of America to move media interviews out of the locker room,” it said.

Some reporters are pushing back. Calvin Watkins, President of the Pro Football Writers of America, who has covered the Dallas Cowboys and other NFL teams for over two decades, noted that the players already have protections.

“If a player comes out of the shower and he wants to get dressed in the locker room, the team must provide a curtain around his locker stall so he could get dressed in private,” he said.

The media is willing to respect players’ wishes, Watkins said, as long as they still get their interviews. He also noted that this kind of access and the coverage that comes from it has contributed significantly to the NFL’s current status as a globally recognizable and successful brand.

The current NFL media policy notes that interviews “may be conducted outside the locker area” if the club or player requests it.

“However, media representatives must be permitted to request interviews in person with players inside the locker room,” it says.

It also gives the home clubs responsibility for ensuring that both teams’ shower areas are screened from view.

“Each team must provide its players with wrap-around towels or robes, in addition to the standard supply of bath towels for post-game showers,” the policy says.

Other professional sports, such as basketball and baseball, grant reporters even greater access to the locker room.

Christine Brennan was one of the first female reporters allowed inside an NFL locker room, as a beat reporter for the Washington Post in 1985.

The conversation about locker room access has evolved over the course of her career, having been a “man’s domain” in her early days.

“So many of these hard-line old-school coaches didn’t believe women knew football, didn’t believe women should be around the game of football,” Brennan said. “And they fought tooth and nail to prevent people like me from doing my job.”

By 1985, the NFL began requiring equal access for both male and female reporters.

However, the NFLPA’s Howell said today’s debate isn’t about gender at all — it’s about evaluating a longstanding tradition through a 2024 perspective.

“It’s just going to be a very different procedure and I think it’s going to limit the information the fans, followers, observers of the National Football League care so much about,” Brennan said.