"The story idea is this:" thread

Was on the treadmill a little while ago (Whitmanian humblebrag!) walking at a nice clip, sweating, watching an NFL Draft thing on ESPN and most of the chit-chat centered around Jameis and they're showing highlights galore and for whatever reason I thought of Brent Musburger calling some of Winston's games and that trailed off into thoughts of Brent's career.

I may have brought it up here before, but I've always loved that he's from Billings Montana.

Whenever I see or hear Brent I think of Kevin van Valkenburg of ESPN because he's a Missoula man, so you have prominent fellas from Montana, one a Hall of Fame sportscaster in the twilight of his career, the other a sportswriter who's smack in the middle of living his dream at the top of the food chain.

The story idea is this: Kevin and Brent take an early summer roadie across their home state, and Kevin writes about their shared experience of being Montanan, and sports guys, and have it be in the vein of HST riding in a car with Nixon from Nashua to the airport, while Kevin pays homage to a titan whose career slowly comes to a close while his continues its upward path.

It's really the Montana thing that would make for good reading, I think.

Plus, I think Kevin is doing a teaching gig at Montana (this fall?), so it would be a "Going Home" kind of thing too.

So then ...

What story would you want to read if able to assign it?

 

A college coach takes a football job at a bigger school. He takes most, but not all of his old staff. Honors many, but not all of the new scholarships offered at the new place. You wonder how many people are affected by one guy making the move. Coaches who have to look for new jobs, families who have to move, players who suddenly find themselves without a scholarship, players with scholarships who suddenly find themselves not "fitting" the new coach's system. Is there resentment?

 

Wright Thompson covers the Iditarod.

 

An idea similar to one Mick Foley had: a year behind the scenes of the WWE, leading up to Wrestlemania.

Foley's idea was to follow Vince McMahon for the week leading up to it. My idea would be to follow multiple people. Executives, writers, wrestlers, both main event and undercard, one of the guys who sets up the ring. Behind the scenes stuff, such as preparations, who would be in line for a push, wrestlers dealing with injuries, stuff like that.

 

Another idea. I remember someone on here a while back who commented that the night of Jan. 20 must be the best night of sleep for a president who just left office. So the story would be following the president, or Vice President, or both, during the final days of their terms, and the first few days afterward. How do they cope with having the most important job of their lives end? What are their emotions, and that of their families, as they prepare to leave? Like pro athletes, how do they begin to cope when the cheering stops?

 

Anyone know of an online university in Alabama that was shut down in the last few years for being bogus?

Could've been Arkansas.

 

I don't cover sports. [Because I am weak and stupid.] But universities here in the UK have been offering graduate fellowships for the past few years for people coming over to play basketball. At least one I've come across now doing the same for football.

This is interesting because college sports are 1/10000th the deal they are in the USA. Plus, you have the culture clash, etc. etc.