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Sports Journalism and losing your fanhood

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by verilos, Jul 4, 2009.

  1. Twoback

    Twoback Active Member

    You can't be a fan of the teams you cover. It doesn't work.
    Many here will say you'll eventually lose your fandom from being around this 24/7.
    But you can still be a fan of sports. You can still have favorite teams, teams you care about a lot and follow just like when you were a kid. It helps if they're in a different city, or a different sport. In fact, it's essential. I'm as big a fan of sports now as I ever was, and the people on this board can tell you my favorite teams, if they've been paying attention. But I've never covered any of them, and probably never will.
     
  2. Didn't read the thread, but just one thing: your writing is good - I can tell from your post. Most people your age who come on here and declare a desire to become a sportswriter do not seem to write well.

    That is all! Good luck.
     
  3. friend of the friendless

    friend of the friendless Active Member

    Master Verilos,

    My standard answer is that I can't remain a fan of teams for professional purposes. Not as much of an effort as it would seem from the outside. Instead, I'm a sort of a fan of certain players, coaches, managers, etc. Not that I root for them ... not practical because they so often go head to head ... but I do follow them with interest. And not that I have posters of them on my bedroom walls.

    I suppose it is, in ideal world if not reality, like covering politics and separating one's own political sympathies from reporting.

    o-<
     
  4. Some Guy

    Some Guy Active Member

    You can be a fan of sports ... of the beauty of the games and the skill it takes to play them ... You can't be a fan of teams, or the players, you used to.

    It's kind of a switch that turns off.

    The team I cover now is the team I grew up rooting for. I was die-hard. One of the players on the team is a player I absolutely idolized when I was younger. He's just another guy to me now. If fact, many days, he's just another guy whose inaccessibility is preventing me from doing my job.

    In fact, you cover 80-plus games a year on deadline, you kind of stop caring about who wins and who loses. You just want a good story, and you want it to wrap up in time for you to write it. If you start living and dying by the team you're covering, you're going to die an early death.

    Before I got this beat, I covered the major college team I grew up rooting for. Same thing.

    I'm not some "bitter hack" who hates sports and the people who play them. But I've found it fairly easy to be impartial covering teams that used to be MY teams. Like I said, there's a switch inside that shuts down.

    It's kind of nice, actually, to not have my short-term happiness dictated by how well or how poorly some other dudes play a game.
     
  5. In a lot of ways, your love of sports becomes richer by doing this for a living. I might not want to paint my chest team colors for the game, but I can spend hours dissecting games, teams, leagues, etc., etc., with my learned friends in the business. At the same time, I can't spend more than 10 seconds listening to "Joe on a Car Phone" pitch his latest trade idea.
     
  6. Some Guy

    Some Guy Active Member

    "Why don't we just take our 12th and 13th man, and a second-round draft pick, and go get Kobe!?!"
     
  7. Sp0rtScribe

    Sp0rtScribe Member

    I completely agree with this. There are a lot of people who think they know sports who really don't. There's so much more than what meets the eye that fans would stop caring altogether if the understood a lot of the meticulous nature of sports.
     
  8. leo1

    leo1 Active Member

    i'm still a sports fan but in an analytical way, not a passionate way.

    i've been out of the sports writing business full time for seven years and it's been about five years since i last covered a game. i loved my career as a sports writer but i still can't recapture the passion i felt about sports that i had before i got into the business.

    i'll watch a game with friends and they'll act like the usual fanboy idiots (and i mean that in a good way) and i'll enjoy the game but i literally am incapable of getting passionate about it.

    it kinda sucks.
     
  9. Sp0rtScribe

    Sp0rtScribe Member

    Could not have said it any better. You HAVE to love writing and telling stories and spotlighting features and teams that no one else might know about. Sports are more about the stories behind the teams and players than anything else.
     
  10. JBHawkEye

    JBHawkEye Well-Known Member

    WFW.
     
  11. duckncover

    duckncover Member

    It took me two years out of the sports department before I watched ANY sporting event outside my favorite college team. Just burned out. To this day I refuse to read any gamer (yawner).
     
  12. shockey

    shockey Active Member

    i certainly don't act like a fanboi as i once did before 29 years in the biz calmed me down, but i still love watching with friends who are more, um, flambuoyant in their cheering.and i take parft in their discussions and answer any questions they might have for me, as if i have inside knowledge. i just grin, take part in the chatter and certainly never try to come off as anyone in the know.

    it's all been kinda good, for me anyway.
     
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