Should I get back into sports?

A position has become open in our sports department and I'm wondering if it's something I should pursue.

I'm currently a 52-year-old news reporter and haven't been a full-time sports reporter for more than 20 years, although I've kept my hand in it, covering occasional games and such.

The new position would be mostly preps, with some layout.

The pro is that I would enjoy the work more. Covering a softball game beats the heck out of covering a city council meeting.

I can't ascertain if there would be more job security in sports than where I am now.

The main con is the hours. I usually work 9 to 6, Monday through Friday, with a 45-minute commute at each end. I do probably five night shifts per month, but I'm still home by 11.

In sports, there would be more nights and weekends. There also would be a couple shifts per week at our main office, another 30 miles from the bureau where I'm currently assigned.

Also, our only child is starting high school in the fall, meaning I'd miss some of his events, primarily his football games.

So it's a work vs. lifestyle decision.

I'm looking for insight on what some of you would do.

 

Lifestyle.

'nuff said.

 

What Baron said.

And it wouldn't be close.

 

It really depends what you want to do.

Sounds like you have a good grasp of the pros and cons of both situations. Lots of people start in sports and move to news because the schedule is less demanding at times.

But, in the end, you are the guy looking yourself in the mirror.

 

Do you really want to choose to miss your son's high school football games so you can go cover someone else's son playing football?

 

Saw the headline and prayed this was a query from Bo Jackson.

For him: Yes.

For you: Ehhh... Sports journalism is an awesome thing. If you can make the schedule work and your kid and your wife won't hate you and you might be happier, give it a shot. But lifestyle and 9-to-6 is very powerful. A lot of people would kill for it and really question why someone would give it up.

 

No.

They'll make you leave the press box before you're finished./crossthread

 

At 52 if I were you I would just go to my sons football games and help him through high school and go down that path. From my experience there have only been 2 50+ year old people that I've worked with. My boss who runs the site I work for and occasionally makes recruiting calls and goes to 1-2 games per year and the other a columnist for the Times who doesn't even read his own column. So having said that I'd go to watch your son play if I were you BUT in the end like others have said you have a grasp of the pro's and con's but you're the one who has to live with it.

 

It's a matter of what you want to do. I have done two stints in news and I just like sports better. Yeah, the hours aren't so good but I find a way to make it work.

 

I have missed plenty and I know that was a big factor in a perpetually 15-year rocky marriage that ended in divorce (the other big factor is that we never should have been married in the first place). I'm an SE in a Big 12 town, and while I still cover a bunch of preps, I also cover a bunch of college and do have occasion to travel and actually enjoy some of the things that makes sportswriting sound cool. Perhaps it would be different if it was all preps and I never left town … Still, my point is, I think I would have killed myself if I'd spent the last 21 years on the news side … A long time ago I almost changed papers to become a desk guy at a daily business journal. I was led to believe I was second in the running for a job that would have given me normal person hours, weekends, maybe even a small raise. Also, I would have been miserable. If you don't like what you're doing, what's the point? It is a matter of degree, of course. Still, something to think about.

 

if you are unhappy where you are, and covering sports would make you happy, and that chance is there, then get back into sports....it's that easy.

 

I've come to determine that these types of decisions should be matters of self-actualization. Which makes you happier: attending your son's games or covering something you care about? I'm just nihilistic enough to think there's not a right answer.