What's the biggest misconception people you know have about sports journalism?

1. You can get autographs AND free tickets.
2. You root for the team you cover.

Anyone else?

 

Re: What's the biggest misconception people you know have about sports journalism

The free ticket thing especially. I even had to tell my dad that.

Dad: "So, since you're moving back here to BigMediaMarket, I guess you can get me NBA tickets, right?"

Me: "Yeah, Dad, the same way you do: from Ticketmaster."

 

That the press box hot dogs actually taste good.

 

That our job is constant fun and merriment, and that we spend all our time "getting paid to watch games."

 

That we get paid

 

Re: What's the biggest misconception people you know have about sports journalis

I covered a nearby NFL team's training camp recently and my father asked me if I had any Team X garb to wear to it.

I testily replied that no, I had no Team X garb because (as he well knows) I'm a Team Y fan and, even if I had Team X garb I wouldn't wear it. "Why not?" he said. I tried to explain that it's not professional. "What, you can't root for the team you cover?" he asked.

Another big misconception is that because we cover sports, our jobs are stress free. I tell my friends and family to never call me on deadline unless it's a MAJOR emergency. Inevitably, someone calls to ask me something stupid (like, "What should I buy So-and-so for her birthday?"). I, of course, end up sounding like an asshole as I try to get off the phone in .4 seconds and later I have to hear, "Why were you so short on the phone?" "I was stressed on deadline dammit!" "What stress? You watch people play games?" ARRRGGGGHHH!

 

Re: What's the biggest misconception people you know have about sports journalis

Me: Yes, I write for the Podunk Daily Disappointment. I cover Major State U.

Them: Oh, The Rules of Golf, you must be the biggest Major State U. fan around, huh?

 

That locker room access is somehow magically cool, as if I sit down with the team's star player and we sip aged French wines while discussing the weather, the war in Iraq and if Larry Johnson or Ladanian Tomlinson should be the top pick in fantasy drafts. These people know what a gym at their health club looks and smells like, but somehow think it is different at the pro level.

 

1. That I write "columns" about everything (I think I've written two in the last year and a half, but most people don't know the difference between "column" and "game story/feature/news story".

2. That we make engineer-MBA type money. Only if we're stars or the people checking the mileage reports are asleep at the wheel.

3. That because I'm a newspaper guy, just like the people at the big papers, that I cover a lot of big stuff like the NBA Finals and the Super Bowl and the World Cup. With three exceptions each year, everything I do is high schools or lower.

And of course, the whole "root root root for the home team" thing. That's more troubling when the higher-ups feel that way, though.

 

I just pisses me off when I'm about to go to a game and someone says, 'have fun!"

 

People ask me why I cover what I do and want to know why I'm not covering the Olympics or some other big-time event they see on TV. As if we get to select the events we want to go to. "Yeah, I think I'll tell the boss I'm flying over to cover the British Open next week." That, and the idea that we're not really reporters. That one irks me the most. I tell them the best writers at a newspaper are usually found in sports.

 

That "Everybody Loves Raymond" is a realistic portrait of a sportswriter's life. I don't even want to get started on this topic (but I guess I already did. ARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!).