I was sitting in a friend's dorm room. We were playing some video game, I'm not sure what it was, but I know I was losing. Our conversation drifted towards sports, because with two red-blooded American guys, it's gonna make it there eventually. We had ESPN on earlier, and he had made a comment about the female commentator. "Unless you actually played sports, you have no right to be talking about them," he said. And this wasn't just a sexist comment. He went on to say that writers and TV anchors who haven't at least played in college had no business in the sports journalism business.
What about me?
I've never played a real organized game of football in my life, but I think I could debate the 2005 NFL draft class as well as anyone. I've never stepped on a pitcher's mound for anything other than to do an interview, but I could talk about Kerry Wood's arm for quite a while. And I've never stepped to the free throw line with a game on the line, but I have pretty strong opinions about LeBron James and the Miami Heat's trio.
I was homeschooled; I never got the chance to play sports at a young age. By the time I spent my first day in a real classroom, I was sixteen years old. It was too late for me.
So is my career as a sports writer doomed? I think not.
Once, during my days as a 15 year-old sports reporter for a town newspaper, I was nearly refused admittance to a basketball game because I claimed I was with the paper. The ticket-taker didn't believe that someone younger than some of the players on the high school team could be writing about them. But I was. And I intend to keep surprising people just like that.
Just ridiculous statement. Coverage is about the ability to study and communicate the event...not bringing personal experience into it. Think about what it would mean if such thinking applied to all of journalism/broadcasting. Some people dont think much before spouting opinions.
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