“GETTING AT HEART OF THE MATTER”
Shaughnessy, Dan. Boston Globe 25 Nov 1990: pp. 45.
PHOENIX - In the days and weeks after it happened, there were a lot of soundbites, letters to the editor, and calls to talk shows that started with, "If that were my daughter . . ."
Chuck Olson called a couple of the shows himself. His comments were more valid than most. Lisa Olson is his daughter.
Chuck Olson today will be sitting in the first row of the upper deck of Sun Devil Stadium when the New England Patriots are introduced before their game against the Phoenix Cardinals. He says he won't boo Zeke Mowatt, the tight end who has been accused of sexually harassing his daughter. Chuck Olson is a Cardinals' season-ticket holder, and he's going to this game just as he goes to all the games. He will root for the Cardinals, as he always does. He will not make it a point to root gainst the Patriots.
I don't hold a grudge," he says. "I don't go up there hoping the Patriots lose every game. But my wife does. She hopes they get slaughtered every game."
It all happened a couple of months ago when the Red Sox were in the midst of blowing their 6 1/2-game lead, and there was still hope the 1-1 Patriots might be a playoff team. One or more members of the Patriot team allegedly stood naked near Olson and verbally harassed her as she was trying to interview Maurice Hurst in the locker room.
The number of accomplices and the degrees of harassment and intimidation are still being argued, and by Tuesday we'll have some kind of decision from NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue who has been busy digesting a report compiled by special investigator Philip Heymann.
Maybe there'll be fines. Maybe there'll be suspensions. Maybe the spit will fly. Maybe it will be determined that Ms. Olson's story was exaggerated either by her or by the media. Maybe the NFL's damage control operation will make this all go away. We don't know yet, because the Heymann report has been sealed longer than the Warren Report.
Meanwhile, a father in North Phoenix watches his strong, young daughter cope with this hype and hysteria.
Chuck Olson is 51 years old, a Montana native who went to Marquette on a cross-country scholarship. He's a CPA and describes himself as "one of those conservative guys." Chuck and Jeanne Olson were married in 1962 and their firstborn, Lisa, came along nine months later. Younger sons Craig and Michael are distance runners (Craig ran at West Point) and daughter Karen attends Boston College.
Lisa played a little softball as a kid, but she always went to the games with her dad. They'd watch Arizona State football, and Phoenix Suns basketball, and maybe a little spring training when the Cubs and Giants shook out the cobwebs. Lisa got a degree at North Arizona in Flagstaff, then moved east and earned a masters at Harvard. She joined the Boston Herald and cut her teeth writing warm profiles of high school athletes. This made her father happy. He remembered the thrill of getting his name in the paper when he played high school sports.
Lisa Olson got her first professional beat this fall when she was assigned to cover the Patriots. "She really wanted the Bruins," says her father. "But she was excited just being a beat reporter."
Olson worked hard and things went OK until the episode in the locker room. Versions vary, but something happened.
What is the father's reaction?
"I know how athletes are," says Chuck Olson. "This wasn't like somebody raping your daughter. It would be different if they tried to take her clothes off, if they tried to look at her . . . But I can't understand this. I can understand 'hey, babe,' or 'want to meet me later?' but this was different. I would feel uncomfortable even as a man in that situation. I don't think what they did was natural. I think what they did was planned, being naked and walking down to her."
The father was pained when he heard nasty characterizations of his daughter and suspicions of her role in the episode.
"I know Lisa can handle herself," he says. "But as it got more expanded and I started to hear negative comments, it bothered me. People were saying that she's not really a professional, or that she's a third-rate reporter, or that she's meddling around men. I'd hear on the radio that she's obviously looking for it, and I'd go through the roof. I called a couple of those shows."
And what would be his response to those who say, "If that were my daughter, I'd never let her go in the locker room"?
Chuck Olson pauses and says, "I'd say, 'Do you always tell your daughter what to do?'
"My daughter is very strong. She's always been a very strong, confident person. I always knew whatever she chose, she'd be able to accomplish."
Patriots owner Victor Kiam got into the mix when he was accused of calling Lisa Olson a "classic bitch."
"He's such a slob," says Chuck Olson. "Initially, I sort of wrote him off, the way he gets excited and starts stuttering. He's not a very professional person. I'd like to have him call me. I'd like to have a talk with him as a father to a father. Doesn't that guy have a daughter, that he would know how she feels?
"I think she can handle verbal harassment. I think the problem would have blown over if they'd been able to settle it internally."
Lisa Olson is home for the Thanksgiving holiday. She no longer covers the Patriots. If she goes to today's game, she'll buy a ticket and she'll tuck her red hair under a baseball cap.
The episode has changed some lives and threatened to change the way sports is covered. Tomorrow or Tuesday, the commissioner will release the report, announce any punitive actions, and it'll finally be over. But it's never going to be totally over for Lisa Olson and her family, and it'll always be a sad chapter in the history of the New England football franchise.
And we know there must be a gridiron god because the Patriots have not won since this happened.