Exactly How Fun Is It To Be a Sports Journalist?

I loved it, and part of me even loved the bad parts, like the travel and weird hours. Then, when I was forced out, I slowly realized I loved it too much, so much I was ignoring the people in my life I should have spent the love on. It's been a long time now, and I stopped missing it some years back. It can be a great career, but it looks from the outside in as if that's becoming a less and less likely possibility every day.

 

A few times a year, I'll get the, "Shit I would have been there" feeling when watching a game, but 99 percent of the time I don't miss it.

I think people tend to romanticize it once they're gone. Part of the reason for that is when you tell people what you used to do for a living, you get the. "That would have been the coolest job ever!" response.

What gave me closure was turning down a chance to come back. The job (for one of the big websites) was a little shaky, but I surprised myself by how quickly I turned it down. The person who took the job didn't last two years before the position was eliminated.

 

I think a lot of sports writers delude themselves into thinking people are jealous of their jobs. I know I did. The people who are jealous of the jobs really have no sense of the grind and what it entails, of how you're working while everyone else is enjoying recreation, of how you're watching games looking for storylines and not simply enjoying a game. So some sports writers I think hang on longer in the profession than they want to bc they have tied their identities too closely with something that they know is disingenuous.

 

My advice for anyone who is looking to get into this profession would be to stay far, far away. Trust me, it's not anywhere near as glamorous as it seems.

The hours, knowing you're busy all weekend while your friends are out doing fun stuff. The constant working on your "off days." I can't count how many times I was "off" only to get a text/see on Twitter something on breaking news (I cover college football). There goes the off day.

On top of it all, all the layoffs/hiring freezes are just downright depressing, even if it doesn't directly affect you. Then there's the fact that people who work in my company make LESS than they did five years ago. Oh yeah, constantly getting more and more work thrown at you while you're never going to get a decent raise.

Stay far, far away.

 

I had people tell me point blank they would do anything to trade jobs with me, although "do anything" obviously didn't include go to journalism school, work your way up the ladder, etc. And obviously, anybody who would make a statement that stupid doesn't have any idea what the job entails.

I definitely agree about some sports writers having their identity too closely tied to their jobs. I was probably like that early in my career, not as much toward the end.

I'm six years removed from covering the local NFL team and I'm still introduced at some parties as "he used to cover the NFL team" or "he used to do the pregame radio show"

It used to really annoy me and now I just kind of make a joke about it and move on. "Yeah, that was a lifetime ago back when people still read newspapers."

 

When I left a pro sports beat, one of my best friends asked in all sincerity if I could put in a good word for him. This is the smartest person I know -- he graduated 4.0 from Yale, picked up Spanish on a lark, and had taught calculus among other jobs.

I made a half-hearted attempt on his behalf, and the bosses told me no. That friend decided to go to medical school after all and is now a nationally renowned doctor.

 

It was fun in college when I was "behind the scenes" but I realized then I could have gotten the same "access" in a hundred other ways.

Then I made the mistake of taking a desk job out of college and it's been all downhill from there.

It's horrible for every reason mentioned above and I'm sure even for the reporters, the "perks" get old real fast.

If I could do it over again, I would have gotten it all out of my system in college and then become a plumber

 

Replace plumber with dentist and I would do the same thing.

There was a college kid who I worked with a bit, who had it all figured out. He said, "I'm going to have my fun doing this now and then I'm going to law school." and he's now a sports attorney who makes about $250K a year.

 

I've been doing this for 37 years. The number of days I've walked out the front door, miserable over what I had to do for the next eight hours, I can count without using all my fingers and toes. I've been blessed to have the best job in the world.

 

For me, it's been the opposite. I get it a lot more now than when I was in journalism. And the path to my current gig and post was was far harder than it was for me to land in journalism. My employer now is also a lot more exclusive and pays better, plus I get amazing perks.

 

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I'm working as an editor but had hoped to be a writer, specifically covering hockey. I hoped to get some hockey writing experience (even though it meant writing for free or low pay for a God awful long time) and apply that to a media relations job with a hockey team. Yes, I was OK starting out with writing for free while working a paying job and I would've been fine working in the minors to start. I never expected I would get to the NHL right away. So I wrote for about 3-4 years in total and saw others I write with never really get anywhere, with the exception of a few, and I started to wonder if it was worth it. Even the PR intern with our local minor league hockey team has had a hard time finding a job since his internship ended, and he is great at what he did.

As an editor, it's not really any easier. I'm tired of people thinking my job is fun and that I should just be thankful to have it. Look...I work for a website and not a paper, so maybe I'm off base compared to the rest of you. But I still have had to work evenings (sometimes until as late as 2 a.m.), weekends and have to put in at least 3-4 hours on every major holiday. You don't get it off unless you request it or the holiday falls on a day you normally have off. My job has its good parts, as my coworkers are all smart and good people, and I don't really work with any slackers. But, I didn't get another position within the company that I applied for, and upon asking for feedback, my manager basically told me that although I have strong points and am good at my job, he didn't know if I could advance there or if I'd have to go elsewhere. That was two months ago, and I can't describe how deflating it's been ever since, especially as others leave for better jobs or I get e-mails about how colleagues are advancing and how great they are. Who would really want to stay?

As far as the writing, I don't even do that anymore. I didn't really see any future in it after a while, much less a media relations position with 300 people who would even want that job in the minors. A contact of mine in hockey PR basically told me that you have to pick either the fan side or the professional side. He would very much be supportive if I still wanted to work for a hockey team, but he also made sure to not sugarcoat the downside. Guess which side I ended up picking and what industry I want to leave? The good part is that my contact said he'd still keep in touch and would be available if I needed advice, so I didn't really lose much by deciding not to write. I still have my editing gig, but I hope to have a new job either late this year or early next year.

TL;DR: While I work with many talented people and had fun when I didn't mind the hours or some of the other B.S., I'm going to be 30 next year and am no longer enjoying myself in sports. It's time to move on in life and actually do things like be able to go see family and not worry about requesting Friday/Saturday off to do so.