Who's staffing the Super Bowl?

That's good. I know it's costly to staff, but you're doing your beat writers a pretty big disservice if they don't go. There is news that breaks for all 32 teams at the game. You can also get facetime with coaches and players in a pretty relaxed atmosphere, which is rare.

The exceptions might be if your team has just made a coaching hire and he's putting his staff together and not going to the game.

 

So, he can drive there and have no hotel expenses. Gannett must love that.

 

Fuck that. If you're sending me somewhere for work, you're getting me a hotel room. My personal situation has nothing to do with it.

 

Maybe not YF. When the Pats were in the Jacksonville Super Bowl in '05, I stayed at my parents' house in Ponte Vedra Beach. Room was nicer, food was nicer and freer, and I had a car. Totally better experience than if I'd been at the Marriott.

 

Send 'em a bill.

 

A lot of times, these things have to be massaged. The Press-Gazette may have said, "We can't afford to send you." Then Copeland countered, "What if I didn't need a hotel?"

It may have been the only way he got out of staying home and handling prep basketball duties or something similar. Given that Gannett (including USA Today and the Indy Star) likely has more than 20 reporters on scene, there certainly was no pressing need to have a Green Bay reporter there.

 

Just guessing, but I'd bet he would not be there if he hadn't agreed to stay at the girlfriend's.

 

Still a terrible precedent. Now they can send you to Indy anytime they please and expect to not have to cover your hotel. And, what if the relationship ends.

What about the guy who has family in Chicago? Does he now get to cover next season's Bears' game because he's got a free crash pad?

You're not doing yourself any favors by letting your employer do this to you. It's either important enough to send you, or it isn't. And, it shouldn't be more important to you than it is to them.

 

Yes, it should. If Kareem Copeland someday is ESPN's Kareem Copeland or whatever because he did great work and shared drinks with the right people for the Super Bowl, it was worth crashing at the girlfriend's place. I wouldn't say a reporter should always pay his or her own freight every time out, but if he could strike a deal to have the paper pay mileage and food so he could be there, why not go?

 

I agree 100 percent. At my first job, I was flying home to California for Christmas and my boss calls me and says, "There's a basketball game being played 30 minutes from where you live, can you cover it?" I almost just said yes on the spot, but instead I said, "So how does this work?" He said, let me call you back. He said, "If you write a preview and a gamer, we'll pay you for the whole week."

That was a no-brainer.

 

I tend to agree with this. It's one thing when you're older, but early in your career, it's probably worth it.

 

I don't know Bob.

If an employer knows you're willing to do this, they will use it against you. And, they'll use your willingness to do it against other employees.

The other thing is, this kind of "ends justifies the means" thinking is what leads people to scab or do other questionable things.

Not comparing this action to scabbing, but the mindset that would justify both is the same.