Sometimes, professional athletes are heroes. Sometimes they're assholes. Sometimes they're both. Zeke Mowatt was just an asshole. Mowatt's tenure with the Patriots was a single season, the absolutely horrid 1990 campaign that included a 1-15 record and the second-worst tight end scandal in team history.
During that 1990 season, Boston Herald reporter Lisa Olson was a beat writer covering the Patriots. She went into the locker room after a practice to interview cornerback Maurice Hurst. Three players, including Mowatt, made a point of walking naked around her and making lewd comments and gestures. Mowatt fondled his genitals in front of her. Olson reported the incident to her bosses at the Herald and the Patriots, but nobody did anything. When the news broke, the harassment of Olson had just begun. She'd be spit on and groped at Boston Garden. Vulgar graffiti would be spray painted on her building. Patriots owner Victor Kiam publicly referred to her a "classic bitch". Later, Kiam would tell the joke that Iraqi soldiers and Olson had in common that they'd both seen Patriot missiles up close. She was reviled and her career was virtually destroyed. Because she wanted to be a sportswriter and she wanted to be treated like a human being while she did it.
Mowatt was a pretty shitty tight end. In 1990 he had six catches for 67 yards and zero scores. He should shown better hands with footballs than his own balls. And maybe not have been such an asshole.
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