Getting bored with sports

Write another. Away from sports.

NB: There's a "two writes don't make a _____" joke to be made here if anyone's interested.

 

I feel that way every single fucking day... Other than the NCAA Tournament, which I cover in most years, I could not tell you the last time I was excited to cover an event...

I don't think it's temporary. I've felt that way for awhile. I feel incredibly guilty about feeling that way, but I can't deny it...

 

Ditto.

 

There's no way I could work in news... Man, is that shit depressing...

I'm just waiting for an opening reviewing movies that should come sometime in 2097...

 

I never found that I got bored with covering sports.

What I have found is that since I did cover sports, in my personal life, I really can only watch sports in which I have a real rooting interest.

I mean, I'll watch the World Series or Super Bowl, etc, but if I'm not a fan of any of those teams, I don't pay a ton of attention to it.

 

I'm a newsie. Business reporter, actually. I get almost bored to tears covering some of the shit I have to cover. But fortunately I'm also able to carve out time to write some of the stories I want to write. And I have almost the whole world (not geographically, but topically -- anything can be a business story if you want it to be) to choose from. It helps to have editors who'll give you some leeway. If I's you, I'd see about a temporary stint in news, or business, ideally as a GA. Then the world's at your fingertips. Figure out what stories aren't getting written (there are plenty), and go write them. Good luck.
FWIW, in my experience, ex-sports writers make some of the best news writers, because, by training, they think about story and detail and character, not just dull recitation of the facts.

 

To echo this...

I work in news. I started in sports a long time ago. I got bored doing baseball day after day, basketball day after day...

Now I do child drownings, shootings and child abuse cases every day. It's not a good trade-off.

It's easy to picture the best stuff you'd cover if you made the switch, but remember the worst stuff too... and you get much more of the worst.

I think that's true of a switch from sports to news or a switch from news to sports... but I'd take the worst of sports at this point.

 

I told my boss I wanted to do more news, Pulitzer. When a promotion came open on the sports side, I wasn't up for it. Still not doing any news unless I jump at the scanner.
I'm on a much smaller scale, but I would see how much pull you have at your shop. Then decide if it's worth (possibly) taking a step back on the company ladder.
That's my $0.02.

 

Have you pondered editing, either copy editing or making the jump to the management track and becoming an editor?

It's not for everyone, but it worked for me. And the pay is a helluva lot better. Tends to take boredom out of the equation in a major way.

 

I've covered sports at every level -- high school to the pros. Though I'm young, even I have felt these twinges of despair at the thought of writing another bad feature about the next flash-in-the pan receiver or jamming away at a crappy no-quote game story on deadline.

I also had a short stint in news and, I gotta say, that shit is both unbelievably easy and outrageously boring. I didn't write any great, award-winning takeouts while I was in news. I was basically a GA guy, got some of our better assignments, but it was utterly unfulfilling. I'm sure covering big news events is different.

I will say this for news, though:
1. The people you cover don't necessarily hate you.
2. I got a lot more reader feedback in news.
3. It is not quite as demeaning as sportswriting.

 

Read Gene Collier's column from BASW... 2000? 2002?

 

http://backissues.cjrarchives.org/year/00/1/ex.asp

here it is: a great column by gene collier, who incidentally is back doing sports