Last night was the first Friday in seven years I had no calls to take . . . . .

Right on, 'Glass. You know thousands of people are going to read that story. With time ticking away, and with the desk building around you -- more or less -- that's what really drives me. I think I do my best work under pressure, and there's no pressure -- outside of playoff time -- like Fridays in the fall.

 

Love Friday nights. Even when they're an absolute disaster, it's still a rush. That's one of the things I miss most about preps.

As for the rookie who thinks it's a piece of cake after one night, s/he'll learn on his own over time; there's no need to try to explain it to her/him. The first time s/he has to get in his/her car, try to find a place with wireless, write a 12-inch story and file a box in 15 minutes, s/he'll get it -- and s/he'll love it.

 

I used to have to -- still might soon -- find the ADs, teachers, anybody to let me into the school to get to a computer and send my stories. Watching that clock tick down as I'm trudging through the back of the field and into a side door of the gym is such a cool feeling. Knowing there's only 25 minutes to write a full gamer -- 15-20 inches -- provides such a rush, and journalism-wise, there's not a better drive home than after it's been sent.

 

I concur with Piotr Rasp.

This is my fourth fall season to be "off the Friday deadline"
(I've been writing news 8 to 5 now, 5 days a week, for about 4 years)
I don't miss the "excitement" enough to seek out another sports job.
Being on the sideline at these small towns, lots of folks in the stands and with the teams peered down on me and sanctioned me as "da man"
They were anxious to read that story, yes ... thousands of them.
All that was good.
But I don't mind attending games as a fan, or not attending them at all.
Weekends are better now, for me.

Just my take on the whole thing.

 

My own experience is this: I covered my first game, wrote my story, there were no more calls to take. Work was done in an efficient matter. Regardless, the writer's first job is to write the gamer. No stopping to answer the phone. It just makes everybody late. However, I did help edit a lot of those calls and help proof pages. We made deadline.

My perspective: I understand everybody wants to be proud of their work, but I don't understand some of the martyrdom that goes on with this kind of work.

 

There's a really good point.

If I'm back from the game, writing on deadline, and somebody says, "You need to take this game. We have nobody else," well, I'm going to take the game. But I'm always going to make it clear to tell the person in charge, "You don't have enough people. You need more phoners."

And again, I'd feel like a real bozo if I had to ask a guy writing on deadline to be a phoner.

I understand I've probably had it too good for too long, but that's the reality I work in.

 

shotglass,

What color is the sky in your world? Because having the luxury of saying "hey man . . .I'm on deadline! I can't answer the PHONE!!!!!!" or of telling the boss "Hey man . . .you need more phoners!!!!" Well, those are scenarios that exist in fantasyland as far as I'm concerned.

Of course, I've always felt that a freaking high school football gamer is among the easiest things in the world to write, with an interruption to help the desk by taking a call not causing any kind of hindrance to the world-changing prose being typed out. It is classic to hear about dudes using that as an excuse to not pick up the phone and take a minute, mostly because those same guys will be found later making loud noise on deadline with loser freelancers talking up that night's prep football games as if they were the greatest sporting events of all time.

"Hey man . . . I'm on deadline with a high school football gamer!!!!!!" Really? The big boys can do those in their sleep. Answer the frackin' phone.

 

Sorry, Piotr. Every place I've worked, we've told the writers to get their story done first, then answer phones. I need a staffer's (generally longer) story to fill the hole a lot more than I need another phoner to get written up. I can always fill space if someone doesn't call back. Can't be waiting for the writer to file because he's taken a couple calls in the last half-hour.

 

That's what I'm told to do every night. It's my story first, phones second. We've got plenty of other guys to answer the phones. If I'm late with my story that'll most likely jump, there's no way we'll make deadline. As soon as my story's done, I get to answering the phones, editing the roundups and doing whatever else is needed.

 

Write the story. If the phone hits a third ring, take a quick look around. If everyone else is on the phone, answer it. If someone designated to answer calls is instead admiring a TV sporting event, yell loudly at them.

The part about yelling loudly doesn't sit well with our news desk. Because of some truly inspired newsroom rearranging more than a year ago, the news desk is now between the sports writers and the sports desk.

 

I don't have anything to add to that.

Well, then I'm in fantasyland. But then again, I told you that before. We even had a fantasy draft there Saturday night after deadline.

 

To me, helping with phones goes hand in hand with team play, and saying "I'm writing a high school story, and am thus too busy to help!" leads me to answer "get over yourself." Especially in today's world, we don't have the luxury of designating individuals to only one task.

Granted, the phoneboys should be the ones taking calls first. But I guess it's just my instinct to answer a ringing phone in a newsroom.