Cleveland.com ‘bulldog reporter’ Mary Kay Cabot tells students about how persistence, pushback impacted her career
As a woman working in the sports industry, Cabot discussed the hardships she faced as a woman working in the field, but also revealed how she remains vulnerable and true to her passion throughout her career.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland Browns and other players throughout the NFL play a cut-throat game that often leaves them battered, bruised, and exhausted. Their persistence is part of what makes them so admirable and what makes football America’s favorite sport.
While covering the NFL, cleveland.com Browns reporter Mary Kay Cabot also has faced challenges, off the field, that have taken persistence. She shared her story and her advice for young journalists with Cleveland Media Academy students in the cleveland.com newsroom on Jan. 11.
As a woman working in the sports industry, Cabot expressed the hardships she faced as a woman working in the field, but also revealed how she remains vulnerable and true to her passion throughout her career.
A graduate of Kent State University, Cabot had a passion for writing from an early age. From writing fictional stories as a child to using a typewriter in her telecommunications class at Kent State, she embarked on her career in sports journalism in college when she received an internship with The Plain Dealer.
Following her graduation, she was offered a position with the Plain Dealer, and eventually landed on the Browns beat, where she has been for over 30 years.
Her said her passion for her job has not just been fueled by her love for writing, but also by the pushback she faced along the way. She refers to herself as a “bulldog reporter,” meaning she is not afraid of getting the full story.
Cabot opened up about criticism she faced on numerous jobs, mainly from her male counterparts. Often, she would find herself being talked down to or being told what she should be doing instead of doing a “man’s job.”
“I had one guy that said to me, ‘What are you doing here when you should be home with your children?’” Cabot said.
She explained a story of a time when she covered the Washington Redskins, yet she was banned from entering their locker room. As a reporter, she explained, she was allowed to be in there so she could get her story. Rather than walking away, Cabot kicked in the locker room door, just one example of the persistence she has.
She encouraged the young journalists to “Make yourself so good at what you do that they can’t imagine life without you” and to always follow the story, no matter what it takes.
The “bulldog reporter” is a mindset Cabot relates to, and she said her persistence has paid off, as she has written notable stories and changed many lives through her work.
In a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2011, Browns player Colt McCoy suffered a blow to the head. However, McCoy was put back into the game instead of being taken out and cared for following the incident.
Cabot received a tip that McCoy had suffered a concussion and that he should have never been put back into the game. Cabot then reached McCoy’s father on the phone and interviewed him, and he confirmed the tip.
The story reverberated around the NFL, and eventually helped revolutionized the NFL’s concussion protocol, making it so that players who received concussions could not be put back into games.
While being a “bulldog reporter” takes persistence, it also requires vulnerability, and Cabot said being able to relate to your interviewee is how you get the entire story, or, as Cabot refers to it, “get the name of the dog.” Cabot recalled a personal story she wrote during the 2024 season about Browns player Denzel Ward.
Prior to Cabot’s interview, Ward was reluctant to talk in interviews about the death of his father from a heart attack while Ward was in college.
But Cabot said she approached her interview with care and vulnerability and she was able to make a personal connection with Ward, explaining how “I told him my story.” After sharing her own story, Ward opened up and hey had a long discussion about his family’s loss.
Cabot said the media room is completely different than it was when she began over 30 years ago. With around 7-9 females in the room now, Cabot says that “We’re not afraid to be female”. She encouraged the students to “get good at it” and do whatever they can to be involved.
Although she acknowledges the adversity possible along the way, she encouraged the young reporters to write whenever they can, and to not let anyone tell them what to be.
“I can be who I am, and that’s a female,” she said.
Ella Gifford is a high school student and reporter in the Cleveland Media Academy, which is an eight-week high school journalism program sponsored by cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer in partnership with News 5, Signal Cleveland, WKYC Studios and the Greater Cleveland Association of Black Journalists.
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