Dear dimwit on the phone

Me, personally? No. Our paper had a cops and courts reporter who follows these things. I doubt they follow every single case.

Your point is well taken and is one of my objections to running police reports in the first place, if we're not going to run the dismissals and acquittals.

 

It's also in Ohio. An NAIA school in my old paper's coverage area used to play them now and again.

 

We do. The problem is many of the readers don't. So what a lopsided prep game becomes is a calculus of how frank you wish to be versus how much grief you're willing to tolerate from the public.

My policy on prep 'mishaps' is that I try to write around it if it doesn't directly impact the outcome of the game. That is, if you fumble in the first quarter, it's "Local's drive ended with a fumble," but a fumble on 1 in the fourth quarter is simply unavoidable.

In other news, I had a caller yesterday asking why there were no Saturday prep football games listed on our regional master schedule we printed in the football tab. Kudos to him for keeping the football tab on hand in Week 6, but sir, the reason there are no Saturday games listed is because there are no Saturday games being played. All the teams with no lights are on the road this week.

 

Exactly. The examples I had referred to were clear cases of a certain play or plays deciding the outcome of a game.

 

I find the "it's interesting and the kids don't really care" argument much more compelling that the circular "we're reporters so it's our job because we're reporters so it's our job" argument.

 

Well it is a much better argument.

I remember once doing a story on two brothers, twins, one who played QB and one who played offensive tackle. Completely different body types, fun little mid-season feature.

Well I file, get back to the office and my editor asks, where the OT's mugshot was. Turns out, we missed him in trying to shoot the 80-plus kids on the roster at photo day (they did it before rosters were out and it was a clusterfuck). It's about 8:30, I have something to cover, we have four local stories so I we give a collective fuck it, run with just the QB mugshot.

For two fucking weeks the mom and uncle are calling us. "He's so distraught" "He never gets his photo in." "Can you just rerun it with both photos." So a week or two later I talk to the OT for a game preview, as he's a good talker and I want to get that mug. I apologize, and the kid was, "Like, it's OK, he's the QB, of course his photo is in there more," with a smile across his face. Could not have cared less.

Kid was really smart to boot. Next season he and his brother win state after coming close as juniors/sophomores. Tackle, who's really undersized, leaves football after that season, goes to attend a pretty solid academic school. Reminded me these kids don't live and die with what's written about them, becuase their lives have so many more pressing things to care about.

 

True. Funny how the parents and coaches are usually the ones to raise much more of a stink.

 

To all talking about the word "choke" - there isn't an instance where you should ever write the word on your own. To say someone choked would be editorializing.
Now if a kid or coach says they choked, then you go with it. It's always bothered me people said "Little Johnny choked" when 99 percent of the time it's far from the case.

 

I agree on use of 'choke.' You can quote some coach or the player himself saying that, but don't introduce that word into your copy yourself. It seems like people who want to use that word forget there are two teams on that field. If Little Johnny throws an interception in the final minute to end and chance of a comeback, maybe the DB simply made a good read on it and made the play.

 

Had a game end like that last season. Overtime game between two rivals. It was 41-40 after Team A scored on its OT possession, and they went for two. They ran a rollout pass that was perfectly defended. The QB was shadowed by a linebacker and couldn't run it in; all the receivers were covered; and the QB was running out of room to scramble. He did the only thing he could, which was to try to squeeze it into an impossibly small window in double coverage. It was intercepted, and the game ended.
I felt good, in writing about it, that I was able to explain it and gave the QB a chance to tell his side of it. Half the people in the stadium probably just saw him wing an interception into double coverage without realizing he had no other options. It was just great defense. Sometimes the defense wins.

 

Depends on the circumstances. If someone fails to do something routine they have done all the time --- like make a 4-foot putt --- isn't that the definition of "choke"? OTOH, if they routinely miss half the time, different story.

 

People shouldn't use choke because it's tired, cliche and lacks any semblance of nuance.