She took the ball and ran with it

“When I started, the press credentials said 'No women or children in the press box.' ... 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.”

After 30 years on the beat, trailblazer Visser is honored by the NFL Hall of Fame. This makes me so happy. For those who don't know, Lesley Visser is my idol, a role model and inspiration. One day, curled up on the couch and watching an NFL game with my dad, I saw a woman reporting on the sideline and sat bolt upright. "Who's that?" I asked my father, my heart skipping a beat as I realized she was a legitimate sports reporter for a major television network. A girl. A sports reporter. I was 11 years-old, dabbling in journalism for the first time, and finding it difficult to be one of two female sports fans in my grade. I received strange looks upon wearing my new Curtis Martin jersey to school. I positively ached for someone to ask if I'd seen the Pats game this weekend or, once springtime rolled around, what I thought of the Red Sox bullpen. (Ah yes, those were the days of Vaughn Eshelman and Aaron Sele...) And there was Lesley Visser on TV, proving to me that girls who knew their stuff could break into that male-dominated realm.

So cool.

Congratulations, Lesley. Maybe when I make it as an ESPN producer, I'll dig up that "Who is your hero and why?" essay I wrote in sixth grade and send it off with a thank you note.