Sportswriters who are friends with the players

i am friendly with numerous coaches I work with and some of the athletes that I have dealt with more than just a quick interview after a game. It's all about being professional about it and having a mutual understanding that if something bad happens, or they lsoe or whatever, you will write about it and won't sugarcoat it because of a personal friendship. None of the people I have ever dealt with have been bothered by that.

 

This "writers want to be like them" is BS, and only lends to what the public thinks sometimes. Christ, I'm 40-ish with kids and a dog that just got loose and needs to be found when I get home. I don't want to "be cool" or "be part of the story" or party with them. I want to do my job and get home for dinner or see the kids before they go to bed.

I don't think it was any different 10 or 15 years ago for me. I just don't like hearing that stereotype. Hopefully most of us are comfortable with what we are.

 

it still should be. Players are not the enemy. Why can't someone be friendly? In fact, it is the only way to truly cover a beat....you know the people involved in many different capacities.

 

Stereotype? Nope. There are people who are not comfortable enough with who they are, and they genuinely think they're "friends" with their subjects.

Yes, I'm sure they are. The Christmas cards are exchanged, when someone needs help moving or a babysitter they know who to call, and the bars are full of their drunken revelry.

Or we're professionals hired to cover a beat, and they're professionals hired to play a sport. Friendliness is preferable as a beat reporter, but someone answering your questions does not make them your "friend."

 

I think it's important to know that you can stand behind the batting cage in March and shoot the shit with the hitting coach and the other hitters waiting their turn and know they aren't secretly, or maybe not so secretly, wishing you would go away. It humanizes the situation if you can all admire a brand new Louisville Slugger and talk about the bats the players 20 years ago used. You're not just another notepad and recorder that way. It's also good for background. On the record questions are rather obvious, but if everyone is comfortable, they're probably going to answer.

 

Absolutely.

There's a huge diffrence between "friendly relationship" and "friends."

One is the ability for people to relate to each other and form a trust, the other is a horribly unfunny sitcom.

 

The days of the writer out on the town alongside the athlete, drinking, clowning, winking at the same chicks -- just as the facade exists in magazines -- are long gone.

 

What MANY of you fail to realize is that athletes are human. They have problems just as we do, only on a larger scale. In fact some of their problems are worse.
Treat them the way you would like to be treated. The ones who I am closest with thanked me for one thing - NOT BEING A FUCKING FAN!

 

I see being "friends" with coaches and players a particular problem on some beats, such as prep writers who don't want to write something negative about their buddies.

I think it's a particular problem with prep writers because it's a learning experience to be able to maintain a relationship with someone and still be able to write a story if they are picked up for DUI or are being investigated for recruiting or whatever.

 

True. That's where experience comes in.