(Published by www.palmbeachpost.com)

Lesley Visser Tells Women How to Get Their Game On

by Aime Palmer

Sunday, August 28, 2005

This football season, catch Boca Raton resident and veteran journalist Lesley Visser on The NFL Today on CBS talking picks and plays with analysts Greg Gumbel, Dan Marino, Boomer Esiason and Shannon Sharpe.

Football is Visser's passion, and she has paved the way for other female sports journalists during her 32-year career covering professional sports.

After winning a Carnegie Foundation grant in 1974, she was the first female National Football League beat writer at the Boston Globe, where she covered the New England Patriots. She went on to become the first woman to join Monday Night Football, the first female journalist on a Super Bowl sideline, the first woman to handle a Super Bowl Trophy, the first woman to carry the Olympic torch... the list of accolades seems endless.

"I always wanted to be a sports writer from the time I was 10 years old, and the blessing for me was that my parents didn't say, 'Oh, you can't do that. Girls don't do that.' But the jobs didn't exist for women back then," she said.

After graduating cum laude in English from Boston College, she was determined to break into sports journalism.

"When I started, the press credentials said 'No women or children in the press box,' " Visser said. "There are a lot of things in the workplace that you can attempt to hide, and I could not hide the fact that I was a woman. I was always the only woman in the press box, and they didn't even have ladies rooms."

Still, she had allies.

"I remember specifically the black players were great to me because they told me they knew what it was like to be the only one."

Visser, who is married to Fox/Turner sportscaster Dick Stockton, said anyone can love the NFL, regardless of gender.

"Men weren't born loving a safety blitz. They came to love it and learn it," she said.

We asked Visser her advice on getting into the game, and she offered a few pointers:

FIVE STEPS TO BECOMING A FOOTBALL FAN

1. 'Women should feel comfortable,' sports journalist Lesley Visser says. 'Anybody can get on this train anytime they want.'
2. 'Pick a player who you think is really fun,' she said. Her picks: Peyton Manning, Michael Vick, Marshall Faulk, Eli Manning or Chad Pennington.
3. Heads up: 'When the ball is snapped, just kind of watch what's happening there: Is the offensive line moving forward to indicate a running play, or is the offensive line moving back to protect the quarterback?'
4. Find a fan: Watch a game with someone who's more of an expert than you. And don't be afraid to ask questions.
5. Tune into the drama: 'The great element about sports is that people can't script it. It's not like a movie; it's not like an episode of Seinfeld. It happens, and that's why people scream for it,' Visser said. 'I think it's born of passion. If you're interested in it, you'll see it.... You should just love it if you love it. It's not written anywhere that women have to love the NFL.'