For those who don't like her, you should at least respect her.
By
Dan Labbe, cleveland.com
CANTON, Ohio — Cleveland.com Browns beat reporter Mary Kay Cabot has taken plenty of grief during her career covering the team, which started in 1991, so it was appropriate on Friday night at the Pro Football Hall of Fame Gold Jacket Dinner that she gave some grief to a future Hall of Famer she once covered, Bill Belichick.
“If Bill didn’t like something I wrote, he’d call and yell at me,” she said. She recalled during one of her yelling matches with the surly Belichick telling him if he didn’t have the “footballs” to say that to the guys, then don’t say it to her. “Now I totally understand why Bill game such a hard time,” she said. “I was 28 (years old) at the time and he just couldn’t relate to a woman that old.”
Belichick, of course, is dating 24-year-old Jordon Hudson.
Cabot accepted the Bill Nunn Memorial Award on Friday night, given by the Pro Football Writers of America to a reporter who has made a long and distinguished contribution to pro football through coverage. She is the second woman to win the award and joins the late Chuck Heaton as reporters from The Plain Dealer to win it.
The theme of Cabot’s nearly 12-minute speech was breaking down doors, figuratively and literally. She recalled one of the first times she was assigned to go into an NFL locker room refusing to let her in.
“So I kicked the door open and walked in and somehow managed to get the story in on time,” she said. Once she got in and got that story filed, she knew things would be different.
“Once I walked through that door into the NFL, I knew I’d have to play big to survive in this Alpha Dog world,” she said. “If I was going to keep that door open and pull all of the amazing women through it who have come after me, I knew I had to make them know my name, as Browns cornerback Denzel Ward would say.”
Cabot recalled getting called “every name in the book, threatened with violence and told she would never make it.
“If you’re going to blaze a trail, you have to be willing to walk through the fire,” she said. “I took more arrows and inappropriate comments than I should have, but I didn’t want to become the story, I just wanted to write them.”
Cabot didn’t just blaze a trail, she raised a family, too, with some help.
“I had my amazing mom and incredible husband (Bill),” she said, “and there’s no way I’d be standing up here tonight without either of them.” She credited Bill with piling their three kids, Camryn, Celeste and Christopher, into car seats and taking them to church. When she turned down a great job offer from ESPN, it was Bill, her “rock and guiding light,” who said they could make it work. She turned it down.
Anyone who knows Cabot’s affinity for her family and the city she calls home, shouldn’t be surprised. This is the beat she was always meant to have and the trail she was always meant to blaze. Anyone who has followed the work she has done covering a football team that hasn’t always made it easy, also knows it’s no surprise that she’s now a Hall of Famer.
Read the full text of Cabot’s speech:
“I’m so humbled and grateful to be here accepting this prestigious award. I can’t wait to see all the guys in their gold jackets. But I must have read the memo wrong. I thought it was the gold dress dinner.
“Huge congrats to Brent Musburger and and to the new inductees. I see you Antonio Gates. Go Flashes.
“I also can’t wait to see the great Joe Thomas out here and I’m so honored to have helped put him in the Hall two years ago. Joe blocked for 20 Brown starting quarterbacks in his day and I know that was rough, but I can’t feel too sorry for him because I’ve covered 49 Brown starting quarterbacks since the late 1980s and about 47 of them blamed their benching on me.
“Brandon Weeden gets trapped under the US flag. My fault. Johnny Manziel forgets to read the playbook. My fault.
“I’ll never forget one of the first times I was assigned to go into an NFL locker room some 30 years ago. The guy guarding the door refused to let me in, and my deadline was fast approaching, so I kicked the door open and walked in and somehow managed to get the story in on time. I wouldn’t recommend this, however, because it was really difficult to limp back up to the press box.
“Once I walked through that door into the NFL, I knew I’d have to play big to survive in this Alpha Dog world. If I was going to keep that door open and pull all of the amazing women through it who have come after me, I knew I had to make them know my name, as Brown’s cornerback Denzel Ward would say. “It wasn’t always well received. Back then, it was the Wild, Wild West for female reporters, and we had to fend for ourselves. I got called every name in the book. I was told to get back in the kitchen — when I was never in the kitchen in the first place — threatened with violence and told I would never make it in this business. And that was just by a couple of guys in my old sports department back in the day.
“But if you’re going to blaze a trail, you have to be willing to walk through the fire. I took more arrows and inappropriate comments than I should have, but I didn’t want to become the story. I just wanted to write them.
“Now I look around the NFL and I see women everywhere, in the media room, the front office, the coaching staff, the officiating crew, and I hope I was able to make their jobs a little easier.
“We even have girls flag football now, and I’m a little jealous. I would have been a little diva receiver.
“Fortunately, I went to the school of hard knocks in the NFL because Bill Belichick was the first Browns coach I ever covered. You see, if you start out with Bill Belichick, no one can rattle you after that. If Bill didn’t like something I wrote, he’d call and yell at me. If you asked a dumb question, he’d call you out. Eventually, I had to learn to stand up to him. During one of those yelling matches, I told him, if you don’t have the ‘footballs’ to say that to the guys, then don’t say it to me. Bam.
“But now I totally understand why Bill gave me such a hard time. I was 28 at the time, and he just couldn’t relate to a woman that old. “Again, I’m grateful because it calloused me to stay in the game when the going got tough. One of those times came in 2011 when Colt McCoy was put back in the game with a concussion. A family member confirmed it and I broke the story. Before I knew it, I was getting yelled at in the hallway by a very large previous member of the Browns front office. But I wasn’t about to let them break me. I stuck with it, and the series led to the new NFL concussion protocol, which I know has saved lives.
“Another time came when I broke the story that Baker Mayfield might ask to be traded. He tweeted out to his legions of followers that my story was clickbait and don’t put words in my mouth to put food on your table — to which my son replied, ‘I’ve got news for you, Baker, My mom hasn’t put food on the table in 25 years.’ Baker did end up asking to be traded, by the way.
“I pride myself on being an old school Bulldog reporter, but I also love to tell your life stories, to reach inside your heart and soul and find something that you’ve never been willing to share or that you didn’t even know was there. I don’t know who cried harder during my interview with Trent Dilfer about him losing his young son Trevin to a heart virus, him or me. I had a tremendous responsibility to honor Trevin’s memory and I took great, tender loving care with it.
“Or the time linebacker Jamie Collins opened up for the first time about losing both of his parents when he was six years old and how his 20-year-old sister raised her five younger brothers. Collins learned how a father talks to a son by overhearing conversations in a convenience store.
“Denzel Ward didn’t want to talk about losing his dad at age 46 to a heart attack, but I shared with him my story of sitting at the Cleveland Clinic with a black box in my hands and a little green light on it while my husband’s heart was outside of his body being worked on. Denzel knew I had a heart for his story and he opened up. I’m sure we saved some lives with that one. “Or Mike woods, who shared that he had a near death experience at the age of four when he was found unconscious at the bottom of the family pool.
“Or Jerry Jeudy, who cleaned the mucus from his baby sister’s breathing tube when he was in sixth grade and was devastated when he lost her in high school.
“Or former Colts GM Ryan Grigson. Sorry I made you cry, buddy, but you really needed to get that out.
“My maternal instincts kick in during these interviews, and I think the players know that I truly care.
“Speaking of maternal instincts, I don’t see a lot of women in this role with multiple kids, but I’m here to tell you it can be done. You just need help. I had my amazing mom and my incredible husband and there’s no way I’d be standing up here tonight without either of them.
“When I was on the road for Browns games, Bill would pile the three kids into car seats and take them to church. He’s been my rock and my guiding light for the past 32 years. When I was getting yelled at, called out and threatened, he was always there to catch me. When the kids were really little, ESPN came calling with a great job offer, but I didn’t think I could pull it off. Bill said, ‘We can make it work.’ I was the one who said no.
“Now Bill just says that I’m in a 25-year cooking slump, but he’s confident I’ll pull out of it. I think so too. As soon as the Browns win the Super Bowl, I’ll make him that big pot of white chicken chili he’s been waiting for. “And my three amazing children who are truly my heart, they survived the craziness of this job and they’re all with me here tonight. So it must not have been too bad. If it was, keep that to yourselves, kids.
“They’ve seen me write stories from the dentist chair, from under a pier on the beach, and from the bleachers at a lacrosse game. They watched me head out the door for a walk with my computer on my back. Chris and I were a few minutes late for mom prom because Johnny Manziel was found floating on a swan that night. But we stayed until the final dance.
“Girls, I never missed a gymnastics meet. And I reverse French braided your hair before every one. I taught you to be fearless and to follow your hearts. And I think you listened. We’ve got one budding future member of the senior golf tour, one professional acrobat and one stand up comedian.
“I gave you guys everything I had. When I wasn’t covering a coaching search.
“My late father would singlehandedly light up this room with pride if he were here. He was the biggest sports fan in all of Cleveland and always believed that this was the Brown’s year. My mom, who poured her heart, soul and rosary into our kids, is still kicking at 93-years-old. Before every Browns road trip, she urges me to bring us a winner. I’m trying, girl. I’m trying.
“To my best friends in the business, Marla, Nate, Scott, Dan, Ashley, Chris and Jeff, thank you for the laughter, the support, and for driving Miss Daisy.
“To Marla Ridenour, who hit the trail a few years before I did, thanks for walking this Hall of Fame journey with me. I love you dearly. “To my wonderful family and friends who came from all over the country to be here tonight, I love you guys.
“A special thanks to the great Charean Williams, the first woman to win the Bill Nunn Award in 2018 and a fellow trailblazer. It’s hard to believe I’m only the second one in 57 years. Thanks for kicking the door open to the hall so I could walk through it. I promise I will help keep it open for the others.”
https://www.cleveland.com/browns/20...mor-and-a-joke-about-bill-belichick.html
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