How to leave sportswriting and never regret a second

And a friend of mine quit an SID job at a mid-major the took a job in PR for a health insurance company. He quit that because he was having a hard time being dishonest.

 

To be clear, I’m not saying you have to or are expected to lie. It’s more of putting the news you disseminate in the best possible light for your company. If a company expected you to lie, that’s a place where you don’t want to work.

 

I don't regret leaving sports, or newspapers.
But I hate where I am at, six years later.
Eight months ago, for the first time in 20 years, I went to work. To a job, that was just a job. I am a cog in a wheel. A replaceable cog in an ever-turning wheel.
It's a good job, with good pay and benefits, but it is work. And I, at 47, am starting at the bottom where I will stay. It's a physical job and I am not sure It's something I can do until I am 67.
I am trying to keep perspective: I have a job. A good job and my wife has a good job and our kids are happy and healthy.
But God Damn.
I am miserable.
I still write on the side and do some volunteer work. But I am not special. I am not unique. And after 8 months out of PR, Development and Communications, it's become apparent I not getting back in. When I worked at the paper, I was special. Even when I left he paper at my last job I had a tremendous impact in the community and I loved it. Proudest moments of my professional life.
It ended and now ... I am nobody.
Somebody posted here once about a having Nick Saban's cell number was kind of irrelevant if you were a shopping cart clerk (something to that extent) and it hit home for me. HARD.
I am that shopping cart clerk. And it hurts.

 

Hang in there Orville. You are not special and you wouldn't be if you were still in sports. It's because newspapers are dead and they aren't coming back. You may have been a "somebody" at the newspaper, but not really. not in the current climate. You likely never got a raise, were taken advantage of by the suits all because you love writing and sports. You are better off. This is rated the worst job you can have out of 200 jobs for a reason. Low pay, horrible hours, terrible managers who have absolutely no clue. It's a demeaning profession and the fact a coach or two might know you and drop your name if somebody asks if they know you, big deal? Journalism is horrible right now and don't get me going on political "journalism."
The slant in political journalism is embarrassing although I'm talking mostly broadcast journalism here. Not only though. I've read some slanted news stories on many websites. Orville ... go ahead and be a stringer once in a while where you have the clout. They need something covered and since you are not full time you'll be treated with a bit of respect. Otherwise, you are better off. Being a reporter is demeaning now and it's not changing.

 

The depression, and that's what it is, about going from something we were proud of to a job in which we are cogs is not unique. I believe everyone who loves the newspaper business and whatever our role was goes through this after leaving, taking a buyout or getting cut. I did and I know others who have. It's pretty fucking tough to overcome, too, especially when you see people out who ask about what you're doing or say they enjoyed reading your work, or hate what the local paper has become. It's like getting a paper cut over and over.

The upside is it can get better. You're not a nobody. I despise the phrase "time heals all wounds" because it really doesn't. But at some point you finally learn to get past it, get over it, move along, whatever you want to call it, and remember the good and crazy times while not thinking about the young editor brought in to make cuts who you'd like to kneecap in an alley and beat the shit out of before going to have a beer or two while he lays whimpering in a pool of tears and bloody snot. It took me a while to get to that first part, although I'd still like to beat the shit out of the guy and always will.

Hang in there, Evil Orville.

 

I wouldn't feel badly if you are somebody who got out. True there are some writers who are still out there reporting but they are going to get whacked at some point when they start making real money. This business is despicable. Remember that it is a despicable profession and you'll be OK.

 

That's a great post, SixToe.
You nailed everything just right.

 

Colorful but certainly on point.