Does tight access frustrate you?

Everyone here seems to take it in decent spirits. I guess it's kind of a "can't fight city hall" approach, and that's admirable.

But, damn, with the way this is getting around the sports world, it's just starting to feel like we're just constantly on the outside looking in. And I hate that feeling. Like we're just living to glorify other people's accomplishments.

Obviously, there are other routes to stories. But after a while, it would just be nice to talk to the story subjects themselves and get real answers without so much regimentation.

 

yes. it sucks.

 

It's the biggest change in my time in the business.

PR people used to facilitate coverage.

Now they throw up road blocks.

 

Yup.

 

indeed. back in the day, teams felt they needed the coverage. now, maybe because of player salaries and the espns of the world, not so much.

i've told this story before: when i covered the ny jets in the '80s, during training camp, you were actually invited into players' dorm rooms during lunch to do interviews. now THAT was one-on-one access.

i tell the new kids on the block about that kind of access today, they look at me like i have two heads.

 

Guess what I thought THIS was about?

 

You can cover something nobody cares about, and get all kinds of one-on-one access.

Or you can cover something like this:



and forget about one-on-one access because there aren't the 893 hours in a day it would take to accommodate the requests.

 

BT - I understand the logistical challenges. But there's a happy medium between the Super Bowl and prep swimming. Bill Clinton can play poker on an airplane with writers, but Chad Pennington steps to a podium once a week to take a few regimented questions? Doesn't make sense to me.

 

it's awful. the super bowl is one thing. this recent development of qbs or star players speaking just once a week sucks. the nfl has done a terrific job of making sure no one develops a real rapport with the big guys. just dreadful.

 

In a sense, I understand the frustration. In another, it's time for print journalists to wake up.

Athletes and coaches are talking more than once a week. To radio shows. To the Internet. To ESPN. To Stephen A Smith. To big magazines. They're getting the access print journalists used to get.

I've said it again and again…unless print journalism stops feeding its talent to the other news outlets, diluting the product and the reason for the print media, it's just going to get worse.

 

Beats the old "hot dog in a hallway." Oh, wait...

 

hell, i was going to say i thought most prefer it that way.