How do you write a story about...

It's always about the people.

 

The story is about her breaking a cliche or a stereotype of only boys play football.

They are not doing a story about the holder or the snapper, and they sure as shit are not doing it about her football ability.

 

Definitely do it as a personality piece. Why did she want to play? Does she like? What has her experience been like?

Other than that, there's no real story, and probably should have been done at the beginning of the season if there was even an inkling of a clue that the team might suck.

 

I'm surprised at the people who want to dismiss this story out of hand. Of course, it's been done before. Maybe there's nothing novel about it. But it never hurts to interview, and it never hurts to ask questions.

Maybe there really isn't anything interesting there. I would hope, at that point, the editor would trust his writer and drop the piece.

Or maybe it turns out the girl's twin brother, the one with the true kicking talent, lost his legs in a horrible wood chipping accident, and the girl kicks so he can live vicariously through her (Terrible suggested hammer hed: A Leg Up!).

Never know unless you ask.

I do know a lot of people, male and female, have good backstories that never get told because they never get asked about them.

 

Are you going to do the same for the punter and the backup quarterback? There nothing notable about this particular player other than her gender. She's not winning games for them, she's not even getting to kick most of the time. She's just on the team, and she happens to be a girl.

I would understand the interest if she was just killing these kicks, scoring like crazy, hitting 40 yarders. But if you're doing the story just because she's a girl, I can't believe there aren't more deserving/notable stories to be explored.

 

Few years ago, I had the same story. Soccer player/softball stud gets asked to kick. Kinda cool.

Said she'd rather play football than any other sport.

One quote from her and one from each of her coaches and I was in and out quicker than the varsity quarterback with the head cheerleader.

Shoot, I wasn't looking for a BASW entry from the story.

Girl kicks football = kinda cool. That's it.

 

Also, take a look at the first post on the thread. I don't think he has a choice about whether or not he wants to do this story, just how he approaches it.

 

The directive is coming from above. I am being assigned the story. I have expressed my reservations about writing the story. To be honest, I find nothing interesting about a kicker, any kicker, who has been on the field for all of two plays in seven games.
That being said, I still have to do the story. The novelty of a girl football football has worn off. Still, she is the only girl player in the league that we cover. In that respect it is a bit of a novelty. A tired, old novelty, but a novelty nonetheless.

 

Exactly.

Most of us have read a girl-plays-football story before and when she doesn't really have any stats to speak of it definitely makes it kind of a non-story story. However, there are thousands and thousands of high school football players in this country and only a small handful of girls. It's probably something close to about 0.001% so therefore it's at least worth reporting on.

 

I said in my first post that my comments weren't directed at rpm, I was talking about the directive itself.

If you have to do it, maybe you can focus on the frustration of being on the field for two plays in seven games, so you can still talk about football and not just the gender stuff.

 

So, the goal there is to make it so boring that it won't even run? How is that different from a story he could do about some bench warmer who never gets in the games? Seems to me, his only hope for this thing not sucking is to get some personality into it, because there really isn't much of a football angle to pursue.

You are right. It is a stupid directive. He knows that. But he can't worry so much about being condescending that he doesn't ask the relevant questions. And a girl playing football is still rare enough that it is worth asking her why. Certainly not enough to carry the story, but it belongs in there.