People often ask me why I decided to become a sportswriter.
Actually, people never ask me that.
To be honest, people don't generally talk to me, but if they did, I'd tell them that I became a sportswriter for the money and the fame. But that would be a lie, since I don't really receive either in this profession.
I could tell these people that I became a sportswriter because I get courtside seats at basketball games and press box seats at football games and unlimited access to athletes. That still wouldn't be entirely true. Sure, I get free food and free statistics and great seats, but it's still not as fun to be at a game as a writer as it is to be at a game as a fan. In the press box, you can't cheer, you can't wear clothes with your team's logo on it and you can't scream obscenities and jump up and down when things don't go your way.
Sportswriting is an interesting profession. It's two steps removed from playing a game and even one step away from watching it. I'm supposed to tell the readers what happened on a specific play and analyze its significance in an informative and (hopefully) entertaining manner. I'm not supposed to be a fan when I'm writing.
Unfortunately, I am a fan, and that's the only reason I became a sportswriter. I love shouting at the TV when the ref makes a bad call, no matter how idiotic I may look. It doesn't even matter if the ref made the right call or not. I love badmouthing players on the other team, sometimes addressing them directly. And before you ask, no, it doesn't matter that they're hundreds of miles away and couldn't possibly hear me. I know that, subconsciously, they can.
You have to be a fan to be a good sportswriter. However, you don't necessarily have to know a lot about sports to be a good sportswriter. Sports are pretty simple when you get down to it. You don't need to know how to negotiate the safety or how to calculate a quarterback rating to write about football. All you have to do is have a pair of eyes and an interest in the game.
Trust me, I've stumbled my way through enough game stories and columns to realize that it doesn't take a genius to write about sports. I mean, come on, look at me. I get confused by soccer.
A lot of sportswriters (myself included) get jaded about sports when covering them to the great extent that we do. Sometimes, we forget to be amazed. That's too bad, because sports can be pretty amazing at times (see Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan). Sure, there are drug convictions, sexual assaults and a boatload of other crappy things that go on in the sports world, but the good things usually outweigh the bad.
The amazing things in sports are what drew me in to begin with and they'll continue to draw me in. I don't necessarily care about a high-paying job (which journalism is typically not) or sitting courtside at a basketball game, although those things are nice. I watch and write about sports because I can continue to be amazed by the sheer ability and unique talent of these individuals.
Sure, I may not be financially well off immediately after I graduate, but I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else.
No matter how much they paid me.
