Athletes to Trump: That’s not how our locker room talks
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally today in Ambridge, Pa.
MIAMI » Udonis Haslem was leading some banter with Miami Heat teammates after practice today, the jokes and laughter helping everyone wind down after practice.
That’s how he defines locker room talk.
Donald Trump’s characterization of his caught-on-tape crude and predatory comments about women as “locker room talk” has raised the ire of plenty of athletes, the overwhelming majority saying that what goes on even in private doesn’t match up to what the Republican presidential nominee said on the now-infamous leaked tape.
“I don’t know what locker room he’s been in,” Haslem said. “No, I didn’t appreciate it, to be completely honest. That’s not our locker room talk. I don’t know Trump very well at all, but I don’t know who he’s played for the last couple years to even say he’s been in anybody’s locker room and had those kind of conversations.”
On the tape, recorded in 2005, Trump brags about kissing, grabbing women’s genitals and trying to have sex with women other than his wife. “When you’re a star, they let you do it,” he bragged. “You can do anything.”
“It didn’t sound like any talk in any locker room that I’ve ever been in, so maybe it was just a phrase,” Cleveland Browns wide receiver Andrew Hawkins said. “But it was wrong.”
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Athletes fired back en masse at Trump to send the message that they don’t talk like he does. Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Brett Anderson , Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Chris Conley , Jamal Crawford of the Los Angeles Clippers and retired NFL players Donte Stallworth and Chris Kluwe all were among the first to speak out, and many have since followed.
Saying it’s never heard, however, may be a stretch. Some described hearing crude, profane or degrading comments routinely.
“Most definitely,” said Tennessee Titans tight end Delanie Walker, when asked if he’s heard the off-color chatter. “Yeah, I have.”
Ron Darling, the former major league pitcher who’s now a television analyst, said such language isn’t hard to find — and it’s found in the locker room, the boardroom, and country clubs.
The hard part, for Darling, was trying to avoid it — which he said he would do by walking away.
“Every repugnant thing that you can think of has probably been said in a clubhouse at some point,” Darling said at Fenway Park on Monday night, right before the Indians-Red Sox playoff game.
“The thing about it is that it’s the lowest common denominator thing. So it’s the person with the foulest and worst mind and mouth is the person that becomes the loudmouth in the clubhouse,” he said.
“A lot of times clubhouses get associated with that person. It’s a shame. It’s why I chose personally — if my mom heard me say things like that, she would beat the s—- out of me.”
But the majority of athletes and coaches who have spoken out since the tape was published by The Washington Post and NBC News on Friday insist that what typically goes on stops well short of the level that Trump went to in his descriptions of grabbing women on that tape.
“We’re working hard on our young men understanding that women are priceless and should be treated as such,” Ole Miss football coach Hugh Freeze said.
Former NBA player Shane Battier said the “locker room” issue shouldn’t be limited to the conversations athletes have among themselves.
“Be it right or misguided, the locker room — in however you define it — is probably one of the last places where most people feel safe expressing themselves without of the fear of judgment or backlash,” Battier said.
To even suggest that locker rooms are barren of such talk and innuendo would be futile.
The handling of sexual assault cases at the college level has been under fire for some time. Baylor fired football coach Art Briles after an investigation showed the program mishandled and covered up allegations. Tennessee struck a $2.48 million settlement after a lawsuit alleged the Volunteers didn’t properly address some sexual assault claims involving athletes. Earlier this year, Florida State agreed to pay $950,000 to a woman who said she was raped by former Seminoles star Jameis Winston.
And three years ago, the Miami Dolphins season unraveled amid claims of players bullying their own teammates in the locker room.
“If that is the actual talk that’s happening in locker rooms, it’s time to look at the leaders and examine their culture as to why those conversations happen,” Miami women’s basketball coach Katie Meier said.
At the WNBA Finals, Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said the mere notion of “locker room talk” further shows that women aren’t treated equally.
“He was trying to say, ‘It’s what men do.’ And that to me is the inherent problem,” Reeve said. “It IS what men do. Let’s not have all these men stand up and say, ‘Well, we don’t do that!’ … Donald Trump’s candidacy has shined the light on so many problems that exist that I always talk about. He is the epitome of all these things. He’s not alone. It is behavior that’s been accepted for years.”
Dolphins linebacker Jelani Jenkins said the culture within locker rooms has changed for the better in recent years — and it may be because there’s been more of a crackdown when issues arise.
“For sure,” Jenkins said. “People have gotten in trouble for certain things, like bullying, homophobia, different things like that that are very sensitive subjects. So guys are really careful what they say.”
Washington State football coach Mike Leach — who introduced Trump at a rally in Spokane earlier this year — said there was no justification for the comments.
However, he still supports Trump.
“There are no perfect people out there,” Leach said.
21 responses to “Athletes to Trump: That’s not how our locker room talks”
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Trump, of course, is lying about this being locker room talk. I was a high school and college athlete, and never heard any kind of talk like that. Never. Mr. Trump, and his pathetic followers, simply dream up their own reality to make excuses for Mr. Trump’s multiple personality defects.
He’s losing in a landslide. There’s no chance whatever of him salvaging his self made disaster at this point.
Klastri, what’s your name so we can do some fact checking?
Fact checking on what? All of a sudden, you’re into fact checking? Please.
Get used to eight years of President Hillary Clinton. Trump is toast. Thanks so much for helping him win the Republican nomination! You unwittingly (of course) did the country a great service.
For as long as there have been locker rooms men have engaged in vulgar, raunchy, sexist locker room talk. Men are hard-wired to talk that way. I’m sure Bill Clinton has engaged in it. For every 1 athlete that doesn’t speak that way there are 100 who do and anybody who has spent even a short time in a locker room knows that.
I was a high school and college athlete, and never – not once ever – heard a man bragging about having committed sexual assault. Not once. What Mr. Trump spoke about was not consensual. It was sexual assault in all 50 states.
It sounds like you’re making things up to defend the indefensible. Good luck with that. It’s not working. Trump’s poll numbers completely collapsed this weekend. He’s done.
In other news, his businesses are now suffering terribly. He miscalculated there (as he so often miscalculates in business, of course) because people who can afford what he sells have grown to loathe him. People who like him cannot afford what he sells.
I went to college on a football scholarship, and while I heard coarse things, no one, and I mean no one, bragging about forcing themselves on women and getting away with it……never.
You must be in the company of apes and lifelong misogynistic societies…..
His supporters keep deflecting the fact that Trump was describing his history of sexual assault. He wasn’t musing – he was bragging about things that he has done.
Klastri, if Trump was describing his history of sexual assault, why having any women come forward to claim they were sexually assaulted by Trump? I am talking about sexual assault and not name calling. I believe you know the difference.
ike, there you go again.Youve been manipulated and abused so much you don’t know fact from fiction. Does your wife work at Tripler?
Tripler, hardly, that would be an awfully long commute. She works at 525 E 68th Street.
for those who deny what they said, heard, did or saw in athletic locker rooms and for those who believe locker rooms are safe zones from sexual harassment and assaults:
http://www.si.com/more-sports/2015/08/16/female-sports-reporters-sexual-harassment-norwood-teague-rio-olympics-ryan-seacrest
http://www.salon.com/2014/10/14/a_nation_of_sayrevilles_why_locker_room_sexual_assault_is_all_too_common_partner/
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/11/28/sports/patriots-and-3-players-fined-in-olson-incident.html
http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Reminger-Report—Locker-Room-Talk–in-All-Male-Workplace-Constitutes-Sexual-Harassment.html?soid=1103211031575&aid=_ddDJji3NME
CEI – I just wanted to thank you for having a hand in making Donald Trump the Republican nominee for President. You and his other disciples have delivered to the Democrats the most remarkable gift possible – a nominee so ignorant and mentally ill that he will lose, no matter how flawed his opponent.
The Senate looks lost now also for the Republicans, and Speaker Ryan is now fighting to hold onto the House. Thanks again for what you’ve done!
Senator Schumer is making plans to be Senate Majority Leader. Great days!
It was my pleasure. I found it challenging to defend The Donald and enjoy swimming against the tide. It sharpens you reflexes and responses when you have to go against conventional wisdom instead of piling on and parroting the NYT. I’m sure you’d agree that his opponent has at least an equal if not greater amount of slime dripping from her. The big difference between the 2 candidates is that one of them has the undying support of the news media and can get away with almost anything so long as she stays true to progressive totalitarian principles. The other guy is not the type you’d bring home to mom but he can’t sneeze without being attacked by the groupthink media and their useful idiot readers. Witness the childish display by the AP and it’s Hawaii messenger boy the SA.
Of course. Everyone is conspiring against Mr. Trump. It’s not that he’s saying things that are objectionable – it’s that the AP and SA are making it all up. Naturally. Right.
That makes perfect sense. Great analysis!
It’s not so much that he sneezes it’s what comes out of his filthy mouth when he does.
Hmmm, perhaps.
But the more noteworthy difference is that one of the candidates is willing to do the arduous and dry homework of being familiar with the granular aspects of public policy. She has always shown a great work ethic and cerebral ability to master these many complex subjects.
His inability or just plain refusal to become nuanced and show dexterity with public policy only amplifies that he is not interested in effective governance, but rather just his wanting to obtain the accouterments and affectations of the position–which is an exercise of total hubris.
just in case you think those reports were the only incidents of sexual harassment or sexual assault in athletes’ locker rooms:
http://outofboundsmag.com/breaking-the-silence/
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/crime-and-court/clark-high-school-soccer-player-reports-sexual-assault-in-locker/article_7f8e22ce-b757-5e07-bd08-4ad00514696e.html
http://www.news.com.au/sport/sports-life/female-sports-reporters-reveal-the-dark-side-to-sport-locker-rooms/news-story/e58f05bcb6650d4777f71636f35c5b40
http://www.hngn.com/articles/120115/20150817/report-sexual-harassment-towards-female-sports-reporters-rampant.htm
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/jets/nfl-reporter-ines-sainz-claims-sexually-suggestive-comments-made-new-york-jets-article-1.443069
The last time Trump was in a team locker room setting was probably in the 60s when he played high school sports. I bet they said all kinds of bad stuff back then, and not just about women…
Yesterday, at a rally in Pennsylvania, Donald Trump read from an article from Sputnik News, the Kremlin-backed fake news outlet, that misattributed quotes to a Hillary Clinton adviser in an attempt to make the case that her advisors thought she could have “done something” about the Benghazi attacks. Once he’s turned his campaign over to Breitbart and Steve Bannon, can conspiracy theorist Trump sink even lower in his pursuit of fake news? Of course he can — Sputnik News!
Any hope of Trump turning a corner with his relatively competent second debate was dashed when House Speaker Paul Ryan told his colleagues that he is concentrating on saving his House majority as a check on Hillary Clinton.
It is a fact that one out of two major-party presidential campaigns fail. Some fail badly. But the GOP may be about to experience an unprecedentedly wrenching debacle because its nominee is an ideological interloper with no impulse control or regard for political norms. No matter how bad or weird the campaign seems now, it could get worse and stranger still. No matter how bad or weird the campaign seems now, it could get worse and stranger still.
Bob Dole was a horrible presidential candidate and not a particularly conservative Republican. But he was an honorable man who had a loyalty to things bigger than himself, including his political party. When Republicans had to cut him loose in 1996 to try to save their congressional majorities, he was a good and loyal soldier. Does anyone expect that of Donald Trump? His investment in the party is nil, and he takes all slights personally, whether they are from Alicia Machado or the speaker of the House. The Access Hollywood tape was a tipping point.
In isolation, perhaps Republicans could have looked beyond it. But after so many controversies and interventions and alleged pivots, the dam finally broke. Trump depended on brute force more than on persuasion or personal relationships to unite the party. Many Republicans were tentatively and insincerely aboard the Trump Train to begin with. They went through the motions in public, while conceding in private Trump’s failings and worrying about the consequences of his candidacy.
Another scathing and total repudiation of Trump from quarters within his own party; this race has very little to do about Ds,,but rather the incompetency and the huge fissure occurring within R ranks.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/440939/donald-trump-republican-party-trump-train-running-down-gop
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bobbie ann williams, mother of danny williams