Jack Morris, Peyton Manning and how sports views sexual misconduct

On Sunday, four-time World Series champion Jack Morris was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Hall’s Modern Era committee. After being shut out for 15 years on the writers’ ballot, the fiery pitcher finally got in.  

The committee certainly considered Morris’ stellar resume as a World Series MVP, a five-time All-Star and the winningest pitcher in the 1980s.

But did it consider this:

In 1990, Jennifer Frey, a summer intern for the Detroit Free Press, approached Morris, then in his last season with the Tigers, in the clubhouse. She wanted to interview him.

His reply to the young college student?

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“I don’t talk to women when I’m naked unless they’re on top of me or I’m on top of them.”

Morris’ awful remark traveled around the sports world that day as all news stories did back then: slowly. But travel it did. As the immediate past president of the Association for Women in Sports Media, I received several calls from radio shows and said yes to every one, defending Frey and calling out Morris, who, it should be noted, was wearing long underwear at the time.

When the Free Press complained to the Tigers, team president Bo Schembechler wrote back that Morris’ conduct was “out of line,” but then placed blame not on Morris, not on the Tigers and certainly not on himself, but on the Free Press “sports editor’s lack of common sense in sending a female college intern in a man’s clubhouse.”

That was then. This is now. Can you imagine how Morris’ repulsive display of sexual harassment would be received today, when the strength of the powerful #MeToo movement has never been greater in the wake of Alabama’s stunning repudiation of Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore?

Actually, why do we have to imagine that? Why is it not real? Did the Modern Era committee consider Morris’ behavior from 27 years ago? What about the "character clause" voters cite when not supporting a player connected to performance-enhancing drugs? 

Alabama voters just used allegations of sexual misconduct by Moore with minors that date back 40 years – allegations that Moore has rigorously denied – to defeat him.

Minnesota Sen. Al Franken resigned last week over 11-year-old allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct. The allegations of sexual misconduct that have ruined the career of actor Kevin Spacey go back to 1983. The long list of allegations that ran movie executive Harvey Weinstein out of Hollywood and triggered criminal investigations in three cities dates back to 1980.

And on and on it goes. If the Modern Era committee is indeed from the Modern Era – as in the here and now – it should immediately reconsider Morris’ selection. To not do so would be to entirely miss what’s happening in this country.

These are extraordinary times. They’ll be studied in the history books 100 years from now. How can the Baseball Hall of Fame remain untouched by the most important current issue in American society? How is the Hall of Fame different from the U.S. Senate, Hollywood, the news media?  

It’s not, of course, even if the sports world has been glaringly missing from the #MeToo conversation so far. But that’s changing. On Tuesday, the NFL Network and ESPN suspended commentators Marshall Faulk, Heath Evans, Ike Taylor, Donovan McNabb and Eric Davis after allegations of sexual harassment by a former co-worker.

And then there’s Peyton Manning and a 1996 sexual harassment allegation that has been in the news over the years, but certainly is worth reviewing now. While at Tennessee, Manning was accused of exposing his genitals to a female trainer, Jamie Naughright, as she worked on his foot in the football team’s training room. A witness corroborated Naughright’s version of events, and Manning and Naughright settled an initial lawsuit.

Then, inexplicably, Manning and his father Archie decided to go after Naughright in their football memoir, saying she had “a vulgar mouth,” triggering a defamation lawsuit that also ended in a settlement.

Some might recoil at the notion of sifting through Manning’s past now. To that, I’d simply ask why? These are historic times. Manning is a pitchman who remains entrenched in American culture.

Why should he – why should Morris – be treated any differently than all the others?