What's the biggest misconception people you know have about sports journalism?

Again, right on.

I have female friends in the business, so I know how this goes.

And what really pisses me off are some of those accusations are made from the male side of the business.

 

That we're "part of the team."

Every time I talk to my mom, she asks me: "who are you guys playing this week?"

My answer is always "they play St. Fnord's this week." She doesn't get it, and a lot of people outside the business don't either.

 

When I tell people what I do these days, especially older people with a little less grasp of the web, they say, "So you type in all the scores?"

Well, I guess something like that.

 

Oooh here's one!

When the Humptown Humpers win you put them on C11 but when they lose you put them on C1.

Who knew deadline design was so easy?

 

Yeah heaven forbid that the paper give us a little help on Friday. I mean it is bad enough that I have to cover a game, write a story and design pages....but then add a couple callins from stringers and coaches. It is just crazy sometimes.

 

Re: What's the biggest misconception people you know have about sports journalis

How about that the amount of time we work is directly related to the number of words we produce -- if I wrote 10 inches, I must have only worked for about 30 minutes that day because that's how long it took to type. Right, because every story is just waiting in my head to be written out. No need for researching, waiting for interviews, rewriting, etc.

But yes, the 'everything's glamorous' one is big too. I wish they could see all the crap you have to put up with, like heavy-handed PR people. But in the end, I guess I do want people to think it's more glamorous than it is, so I won't tell them that part.

 

Make your football Friday nights a happening -- we tailgate and drink in the parking lot LOUDLY after final edition as the newssiders are walking to their cars. And all desk people, in the final half-hour prior to first-edition deadline, should trot from place to place rather than walk.

News-siders tend to get the idea. And if they don't, make a point of every Election Night, saying in a voice loud enough for the entire newsroom to hear, "Hell, we have Election Night on 15 Friday nights every fall."

As far as other misconceptions:

-- The writers put the headlines on their stories, and write the cutlines for the photos that go with their stories.

-- If you write something bad about a team, it's because you're rooting against the team. You don't WANT them to win. (When, in reality, you probably don't care if they win or not.)

 

Right on, Meat.

I work at a weekly outside of Pittsburgh, yet my friends are shocked ("why aren't you there?") I'm hanging with them at a bar watching the Super Bowl.

 

How people think we can just snap our fingers and run right out to cover little Johnny's little league game, or some old pro athlete who's talking to a class telling them to stay in school. Yeah, we don't need to have a paper today, the photographers aren't doing anything else, and I stay at the paper until 10 p.m. every day just hoping someone will call to tell us that YMCA football practice is going on and we should write something about it. I mean, it'd mean so much to the kids, right? I'll just put on my magic fairy wings and just fly right over there to interview an 8-year-old who can't form two sentences when he's talking to a stranger with a tape recorder or a notebook.

The ticket thing always irks me too. One of our local high schools was playing a game in an SEC town this season on Friday night, and was thinking about staying over and going to the SEC team's game on Saturday. Well, this ain't Vanderbilt. Tickets are nearly impossible to come by, let alone for 20 or 30 people. Yet one of the parents looks me straight in the eye and says, "Well, you can help us get tickets, right?"
I just laughed in his face. Definitely one of the highlights of the summer.

 

That we have the means -- and the page space -- to cover EVERYTHING. And do so equally.

Sorry, your daughter's jayvee soccer game isn't as important as Friday night football. Same goes for your beer league softball. Deal with it.

 

I have made those pronouncements on Election Night. They don't go over well.

1998 Election Night. We go more than an hour late, no one seems to care.

The following night, a Wednesday (Iowa's first-round playoff games are on Wednesday nights, don't ask why) we have six teams playing. We're scraping the bottom of the barrel to get every game covered. One game goes into overtime.

I get done a half-hour late. Our main news desk editor at the time comes over and says, "It's about time you guys got done." I think he's joking, but he says, "No, I'm serious. There's no reason for you guys to be late tonight." Everyone in the department was set to kill him.

Didn't mean to thread-jack.

 

Got that Friday night. Someone left a voicemail wondering why we didn't give the sophomore football game as much coverage as the varsity. "These kids will be the varsity someday," was the reasoning of the caller.