Power Play

My Life Inside the Red Wings Locker Room

“Who do you think you are, coming in here? No one wants you here!” These words were screamed by Dave “Tiger” Williams as he stood inches from cub reporter Cynthia Lambert. It was one of the first things said by a professional athlete to the twenty-two-year-old college student as she entered the Detroit Red Wings locker room at Joe Louis Arena after the team suffered a tough loss. Shaken by the verbal assault, Cynthia had to make a decision on the spot—and in front of the watchful eyes of other players and media members. Did she have it in her to weather the prejudicial storms that likely lay ahead, or should she turn tail and run? She didn’t run. Instead, she stood her ground and blazed an enviable career path after landing the job of a lifetime—covering the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings as the beat writer for The Detroit News. This is the autobiographical story of Cynthia Lambert’s fourteen-year career in the locker room, in the press box, and all points in between, calling out pitfalls and her all-too-numerous embarrassing pratfalls. Cynthia’s self-deprecating style engages you from the first page as you learn about the business of sports reporting and about the world-class athletes she covered. Get ready to feel what it is like to work inside a locker room . . . from this woman’s perspective.