Death of the Sports Interview

I will say this ... in my limited interactions with high school athletes any more, I've found that "talk about" is really the only way to get them to talk. I've asked open-ended questions and gotten yes and no answers. I ask detailed questions, and they kind of nod and say nothing. But "talk about" seems to get them to speak a little bit.

I hate "talk about" with a passion, but it can have its merits in the right situations.

I love the premise of the column because I abhor the idea of just posting blind quotes on Twitter with no context. That's how you get sources to stop trusting you, stop talking to you. Conversations have nuance. They have meaning. All of that is lost on Twitter. It's just sound bites.

 

Thanks so much, Dick. Really appreciate that. Worked way too hard on that piece. It was sort of funny, too, because it was my first story for a national mag, and my family is really conservative, so the whole naked people issue was interesting to watch them deal with. "Oh look, my son did this, and it's in this nudie mag!" The issue mailed to my parents' house had the Jose Reyes cover, and his butt looks just massive on there, and then my mom's all like, "Tim TEBOW was on the next cover! Why couldn't you tell them to run it in there!?"

In all seriousness, that entire experience was unbelievably great on so many levels.

And seriously, thanks again. I'll stop rambling now.

 

That's pretty funny.

 

I'm not sure about this.

The illusion of intimacy is not intimacy.

 

This piece hit the nail on the head.

 

There's a lot of hate for the "talk about" approach to an interview, and I used to be in that camp. But I've found that, when you're on deadline and you've got your story's skeleton in place, you need some quotes to hit on the big turning points. The "talk about" question seems to be the most efficient way to get your quote and get back to work. I resent it, but it's often true.