Durslag Reopens Door to Patriots’ Locker Room

The farther I read into Melvin Durslag’s column on Lisa Olson (April 29), the more I kept hoping that he was going to assure us all that he was kidding. No such luck.

What Mr. Durslag said would be merely embarrassing were it not so offensive. Aren’t these the same old arguments we’ve heard for years to excuse the abusive behavior of a particular race or sex or social group? “Boys will be boys” just does not excuse abuse.

To gain the full measure of the sexism and bigotry of this column, substitute the word “black” for female and “lunch counter” for locker room. I had hoped that such backward reasoning as that used here by Mr. Durslag had faded with the ‘60s.

WILL POWERS

Santa Maria