Wearing team apparel on the job

Logos, shit.

I used take into account the color of my clothes when I covered teams or more importantly high school football.

I would wear a college baseball hat at times when covering high school sports, but even then, you have to watch the color.

Oh, and this was a college that was 2,000 miles away.

 

I can't believe people think this is OK. Is it so hard to throw on a pair of khakis or nice jeans, and a collared shirt with stripes or anything else other than a logo of a team? Any team? Wow.

 

College journalists everywhere are blushing while reading this thread.

Wait, we aren't supposed to cheer on our school?

 

93devil...i am the same way. i will make sure my colors don't collide with the teams playing.
this past football season, the D-I university i cover, there was a dude from a metro paper an hour away, a Gannett chain paper, who was wearing a cap and t-shirt with the name, colors of the home team. talk about getting stares from the other media types.
but i got one better than that: we had an ME three years ago who was big into sports and had to be "in" and around it as much as possible. every time the football team got in some new apparel, he would beg the equipment manager to give him some of the stuff. then he'd wear it to games when he'd do a sidebar or a rare gamer (we're a small daily, so shortage of staff sometimes required him to have such an assignment). he would think nothing of it and, in fact, would boast about it.

 

I cover preps and wear a baseball cap almost everyday.

Just sayin'.

 

I actually dress in the full game uniform. Pants, jersey, cleats, cup, etc.

 

maybe because i've been in this profession a long time and all, but i even have a problem with college journalists who cover for their school paper wearing team colors. oh, i can understand that they're young and still in college, but might as well start teaching 'em to handle this business like a pro. is that being too strict?

 

Did you work for the teams? Or work for the newspaper?

If you are PR guy for the pro ball team or State University, yeah I guess you can wear a polo. You do work for them.

If you are covering them, you don't work for them. So no. No polos, no hats. Your colleague looks like a goof, but in actuality, you are just as bad.

 

If you are a preps writer, I don't have as much of a problem with you wearing the gear of a pro or college team. I wouldn't do it, but I don't think it's the end of the world.

But to me, if you don't cover the team, and your paper doesn't cover the team, it's not as big a deal for you to be a looser fanboy.

 

No, of course not. First thing I tell all my stringers, many of which are students.

 

OK, here's a question for you college people or just-graduated people:

If you were wearing team colors on a sideline or pressbox, would you be insulted if an older writer explained why it's not professional to do so? Not an ass-chewing. Just good advice.

How would you approach the guy and what would you say?

Solutions. Let's find some solutions since we've established it's bad form.

 

Don't bother college writers. They have a national championship to root for/win.