Getting bored with sports

Thanks. I remember reading that column in college and doing some soul-searching.

 

Maybe you should be a columnist and write whatever the heck you want.

 

Wait, is Collier back doing sports?

 

Yes. Was a rather interesting about-face on his part.

 

I'd guess there's a whole lot more money as a sports columnist, but that's just a guess...

 

I also went from sports to news. I'm a sports maniac, and, if you'd asked me last summer, I would've told you that my professional dream was to be Gary Smith. Now, it would be...something else, in news. All in all, in my opinion, it's far more fulfilling. The caveat: when I've covered mostly-fulfilling, big-time non-sports stuff, like federal politics, there's been a lot of crap that made me pine for sports: endless lies, gatekeepers galore, insanely limited access, no candor at all...you do, for the most part, the same stories everyone else is doing...

In sum: I'd say the grass, on "the other side," may well actually be greener. Almost certainly not as green as you're seeing it at the moment, but green enough to make a switch worthwhile if you can't shake this malaise.

 

Aren't you still in college? :-\

 

The thing about grass seeming greener on the other side? ...

... it's true even after you switch vantage points.

 

Sports vs News

In Sports, you do a photo pickup of some 16-year-old and they're probably scholarship material

Do a photo pickup in News and it means some 16-year-old's life just ended out on the highway

 

I've done both...in news, I've covered fun stuff, great stuff. Met a couple governors, senators, all kinds of famous people. Also met a lot of great people toiling in obscurity and got to write about them.
It can be a good time.
But what I remember (really, what sticks to me despite everything) is being there when bodies got pulled out of Chinese restaurant and hearing one widow absolutely wailing. Hearing bagpipes at a funeral for a firefighter who died in the line of duty. Being there when a man found out that his daughter was dead. Standing on a street as neighbors of a man who killed his wife, two young kids and himself said "We don't know why."
There's boredom everywhere. But given the choice, I'd rather sit through a 57-3 football game than a parking committee meeting anyday. And although there are sports fans out there who hate me (which amuses me to no end, since they've never met me), I'll take them over looking that father who just found out his daughter was killed in the eye ever again.
And Collier's move was more of a push, IIRC. The Post-Gazette then and were trimming positions, and he ended up back in sports and his news position wasn't refilled.

 

You make a good point, sir. I should write CAVEAT EMPTOR above all my advice-giving posts, eh?

(But...I did switch from sports to news...and did some semi-serious newsing...so I stand resolutely by my ability to dispense helpful advice to name-recognizeable sportswriters 13-37 years older [and 4-27 times smarter] than me.)

 

Are you saying this is bad stuff you wish you'd never had to write about?

(That would be entirely valid - but that's the stuff I find so fascinating.)