{"id":752271,"date":"2026-07-09T09:21:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T09:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/752271\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T09:21:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T09:21:18","slug":"iowa-congressman-calls-for-stronger-wnba-player-protections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/752271\/","title":{"rendered":"Iowa congressman calls for stronger WNBA player protections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tIowa Congressman Zach Nunn and a group of House lawmakers are pushing for stronger protections for WNBA players, including Indiana Fever guard and West Des Moines native Caitlin Clark.  In a letter led by Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger of Texas, the lawmakers are urging the WNBA commissioner to enhance player safety and ensure all athletes are protected on and off the court.  The letter highlights several incidents this season involving Clark, including being hip-checked, poked in the eye, and struck in the throat.  &#8220;Caitlin Clark is one of West Des Moines&#8217; own, and she&#8217;s a hero to millions of young girls \u2014 including my daughters,&#8221; said Representative Zach Nunn. &#8220;She carried women&#8217;s basketball to new heights, and she&#8217;s earned the right to compete without being unfairly punched, shoved, and targeted while the league that makes a billion dollars off her name looks the other way.&#8221;  The letter requests a response from the WNBA by July 24.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tDES MOINES, Iowa \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Iowa Congressman Zach Nunn and a group of House lawmakers are pushing for stronger protections for WNBA players, including Indiana Fever guard and West Des Moines native Caitlin Clark.  <\/p>\n<p>In a letter led by Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger of Texas, the lawmakers are urging the WNBA commissioner to enhance player safety and ensure all athletes are protected on and off the court.  <\/p>\n<p>\n\tThis content is imported from Twitter.<br \/>\n\tYou may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.\n<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I led my colleagues in demanding accountability from <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WNBA?ref_src=twsrc^tfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">@WNBA<\/a> Commissioner Engelbert after MULTIPLE attacks against Caitlin Clark, a player who is transforming women&#8217;s sports and inspiring a new generation of young girls to participate in athletics.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m putting the league on notice\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/TPMpZ6a2Hx\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/TPMpZ6a2Hx<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Rep. August Pfluger (@RepPfluger) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RepPfluger\/status\/2074896386680598600?ref_src=twsrc^tfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">July 8, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The letter highlights several incidents this season involving Clark, including being hip-checked, poked in the eye, and struck in the throat.  <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Caitlin Clark is one of West Des Moines&#8217; own, and she&#8217;s a hero to millions of young girls \u2014 including my daughters,&#8221; said Representative Zach Nunn. &#8220;She carried women&#8217;s basketball to new heights, and she&#8217;s earned the right to compete without being unfairly punched, shoved, and targeted while the league that makes a billion dollars off her name looks the other way.&#8221;  <\/p>\n<p>The letter requests a response from the WNBA by July 24.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iowa Congressman Zach Nunn and a group of House lawmakers are pushing for stronger protections for WNBA players,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[402,1760,48864,1340,173363,13014,322579,14849,11480,322581,3,5190,310039,99,322582,322578,1022,434,30030,11270,322580],"class_list":["post-752271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-basketball","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-clark","tag-congress","tag-house-lawmaker","tag-iowa","tag-iowa-congressman","tag-letter","tag-million","tag-new-height","tag-news","tag-season","tag-several-incident","tag-sports","tag-strong-protection","tag-strong-wnba-player-protection","tag-texas","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-commissioner","tag-woman","tag-young-girl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}