Writer for Buccaneers.com

22 years ago, what was the position? I mean, I'm guessing it wasn't for an online site. How did the team put out their stories then?

 

Carrier pigeon, KJ, carrier pigeon.

 

I'm not applying until these come back...

 

Right you are, Wicked. The bad news is, back then, I was afraid of birds -- and losing teams wearing tangerine! LOL

 

The NFL team I cover has gone through one of these website writers just about every season. Sure, it sounds glamorous because you're employed by the team and likely go on the road (this team's writer does), but the pay vs. workload is just atrocious. Hence the turnover.

 

Norm are you an AFC or NFC guy and when you say travel with the team, does that mean literally. I'm def. not applying, but just curious to hear some of the things that go on with a team (not a beat writer, but the actual team guy) writer.

 

I would imagine this is a good gig for a year or two -- you build some sources and make some connections, and you use the good clips you'll invariably have to line up another gig. Just like working at that 15k.

I guess you're part of the PR machine in this job, but I'm sure you have a chance to do some neat non-PR-y stories.

 

The amount of PR you write depends on the team. I interned as a staff writer at an NFL team's site, and we were told to write stories in the style of the local news outlets. The only thing we couldn't do is break news until it had been announced by the team since we, technically, were the "voice of the team" and anything we wrote could be reported as "The team says..."

But when our starting quarterback was released in training camp my first year, we could report he wasn't at practice, he was seen leaving the facility and his bags were at the front desk before the team had its midday press conference.

The workload depends on the team as well. For our site, we had at least two stories, a notes package and a column up every day, but we had a staff of four plus outside columnists. At home games, we had an AP-style halftime and post-game story up ASAP. After the games, we posted a game story, a sidebar or two, a column and a notes package. Road games were tough since they traveled with the team, and the stories had to be written on the plane. For road games, the guys that traveled got up the AP-style stories, a game story, note and a column.

The pay appeared to be decent enough to lure our lead guy and editor away from the big local papers. He also supplemented his income by doing radio three times a day with a local station. I'd bet similar opportunities are availabe in Tampa.

 

I'm speaking of an NFC team that sends its main web guy on the road with the team to each game, pre- and regular season. Travels on the charter and everything. He writes gamer/notes, but just as important grabs audio from the locker room afterward, then posts it online in the multimedia section.

From an access standpoint working for the team obviously is everything you'd want and the players are cooperative because it's the party line. But you are only spouting the company line and always forced to put a positive spin on even the biggest bullshit that's going down.

 

For the experience that they ask for though, it doesn't appear that they will be asking that much of this person.!?

 

Translation: A cheap college hire who has illusions of grandeur and a fasttrack attitude to the big time will be the pick.

 

I actually saw this opening on Monster.com and the job level said "entry level". So, that should answer most of the salary-type questions. Still a cool job for a youngster, but I don't know how much a newspaper editor would like/dislike the experience if you applied for a regular sports writer job.