All of us were sitting around the offices at FloWrestling when the email came through. And we all raised our gaze from our computers to one another, tacitly asking, 'did you just see this from USA Wrestling?'

It was April 16th when Gary Abbott, Director of Media Communications at USAW sent out their new safeguards for media accreditation. That's a date that, here at Flo, had us in the throes of the season coming off conference weekend, NCAA's, NHSCA's, Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic, and FloNationals, and gearing up for International styles which started in ten short days with the U.S. Open.

None of us were jazzed about the idea of taking an hour to do a background check and watching safety videos. We ~~wanted~~ had to write and prepare for the Open.

But we knew what it was about. And we knew it was the right thing. In fact, we were a little proud of USA Wrestling for getting out in front of it.

Thirty feet away sat the FloGymnastic team, who had been working through the Larry Nasser stuff for months. Why wouldn't we, or anyone associated with any youth sport, want USA Wrestling to be proactive?

So we said to each other, 'let's all do it together,' we knocked it out, and got on with our lives.

So did Intermat, TheOpenmat, Trackwrestling, W.I.N. Magazine, and every other wrestling media site, and they did it without a peep.

That wasn't the case for the big boy journalists.

The same day that the new media accreditation policies for USAW were distributed, APNews ran the announcement. The next day the measure was rebuffed in editorials and with quotes by the president of the Associated Press Sports Editors, Jeff Rosen, appearing in The Washington Post, Deadspin, and Awful Announcing.

“APSE applauds the effort to protect the safety of USA Wrestling athletes, but making journalists qualify for a membership and take a course in how to identify abuse and bullying is misguided,” Rosen, the sports editor of the Kansas City Star, said in a statement Tuesday.

Jeff, you don't have to 'qualify' for a membership. You email USAW. They send you a membership number. Is that too difficult?

“The lack of specificity on background checks, including the extent and areas of the checks, and the disposal of information and indemnification of the media is both alarming and dangerous.”

Is it Jeff? Is a background check to make sure someone isn't a sexual predator 'alarming and dangerous'?

Rosen would go on to endorse a boycott, encouraging that their 'members refrain from joining USA Wrestling media and covering any event in which these restrictions are in place.'

The Kansas City Star, where Rosen is the Sports Editor, was the first to boycott, followed by Bill Bradley of the Las Vegas Review Journal, who quickly determined the publication would not cover the U.S. Open.

As a result, USA Wrestling via Gary Abbott responded:

We believe this is the right thing to do. It is a part of our effort to be on the cutting edge and a leader in athlete safety. USA Wrestling is requiring a background check and Safe Sport training to many different categories of people with access to athletes, including for national staff, coaches, referees, medical staff, state leaders, club leaders, event directors, event volunteers, vendors and others. We are asking the same from journalists.

USA Wrestling invites the media into our arenas, often on or near our field of play, and into our training locations, which provides them access to athletes. In addition to access, journalists do have influence with athletes, with their ability to create photos and videos and perhaps give athletes coverage in publications, websites, social media and television.

This is to protect all wrestling athletes. We want to offer this safe environment to every wrestler, regardless of age.

Journalists will be required to spend a short time filling out the background check. By offering the background check free of charge, we want to eliminate barriers to journalists to participate in this procedure. The Safe Sport Training takes at least one hour to go through. We are not asking for a large time investment here and there is no cost.

The vision is that this becomes a procedure in all of sports. We would suggest the development of an accepted background check for all sports organizations. The Safe Sport training is already available to a wide variety of people in sports.

USA Wrestling is fully committed to this procedure, and will work hard to educate all involved, including the media, other sports organizations and the general public why we believe this is the correct thing to do moving forward.

The first ever Final X is here. Over the course of the next three weeks there will no doubt be media requests to Abbott from writers and publications that have never, or only frequently, covered USAWrestling events. Is it not a good thing that they are all cleared? How about at Fargo? Or the three age level National Duals? Count me among those that feel better about accredited media, who will be in close proximity to kids, passing a background check.

Everyone is resistant to change. And the last thing anyone needs is another task to complete. But this is for the safety and security of kids. It's a small ask to insulate the athletes we cover. And, in the age in which we live, it's the right thing to do. At FloSports, we're proud that USA Wrestling has taken proactive measures, and we echo the sentiments of Abbott in that we'd like to see this become part of the process across all sports.

For the Associated Press and anyone else who would rather stomp their feet over changing procedure than take an hour of their time to cover major wrestling events, I think it's just another example of their indifference to the sport, and a lazy excuse. If the National Federation of High Schools mandated the policy to cover high school football the Safe Sport website would probably crash within the hour.

The wrestling community has a long track record of being a welcoming one. If you'd like to cover our events, we'd love to have you. But USAW has a backbone and by all indications will not redact policies in lieu of safety so that Associate Press writers, who apparently think the process is beneath them, can cover wrestling events once in a blue moon.

And we support that.

- Willie Saylor, Editor-At-Large

- Christian Pyles, Managing Editor

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