Despite her accolades in her rookie season, Caitlin Clark has always received some criticism about her game. Many felt she was not the only person responsible for the rapid growth of the women’s game. Interestingly, the 23-year-old never claimed to be one, but time and time again there have been critics who have downplayed her role. Even her TIME Magazine 2024 Athlete of the Year recognition suffered from the same. But this time, a previous comment from a national reporter seems to have crossed the line.

“Why is Roberta Rodrigues, a credentialed WNBA journalist calling Caitlin Clark a teenage boy? Surely you could find someone who doesn’t insult WNBA players to cover the league and break major trade news.” A user on X pointed out and attached a few screenshots as proof against Rodrigues. The first one was the tweet where the remark against the Fever guard was made. The second one was about the reporter’s work on the recent trade involving Kelsey Plum and Jewel Loyd. And the third was the picture of Rodrigues’ X profile.

The tweet from the reporter was in September of last year when Cairlin Clark was talking to the press about her teammates receiving technical fouls. The famous de-escalation committee being on duty was a theme last year for Fever, but Rodrigues was not a fan of the same. “Here is my unsolicited opinion on Caitlin Clark and the whole “de-escalation committee.” Caitlin Clark behaves and exists like a white teenage boy, including using the privileges that come with being one…”

The reporter explained her reasons for not liking the committee: “She is surely cool about being de-escalated, but had things to say about being fouled. She sees players being destroyed in her name and doesn’t do anything about it. ” However, the players shared a different viewpoint. 

When a freelance photographer, Bri Lewerke added a post with the caption, “CC de-escalation committee is one of my fav things to capture 😭🤣.” The Fever team chimed in with their thoughts. “We work overtime 😂,” Aliyah Boston reacted to the post. Even Erica Wheeler added, “ 😂 😂 😂 😂“. And the main person for whom the committee was formed wrote, “Bruh🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣.”

Another teammate expressed a different opinion than the reporter about Caitlin Clark’s antics

In the game against the Aces, the Hawkeyes alum received her sixth technical foul of the regular season. Another tech would have meant a one-game suspension, but the teammates knew better and protected their rookie at the time. When asked about it, Indiana Forward Katie chuckled. “She’s a kid sometimes and keeps everything light, but sometimes, you just gotta put her in her place.”

She continued, “If we can keep her from getting technicals, that is always a positive. We made it through without getting to 7… that was our goal as a group, and we did it. She’s just always tripping, but she knows it too. So it’s easy to laugh about it.” As a group, everyone worked together to keep Caitlin Clark and her emotions in check.

Even Wheeler, once again stated about working overtime to protect CC. “I deescalate a lot of things around here, man. “She’s (Clark) passionate about the game. The ref is the ref. I’m not going to talk about it because I don’t want to get fined.” Being teammates they did their best to help Caitlin Clark. But reporter Rodrigues had a very different viewpoint back then, which has come to light once again.