Sports Summit II

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I'm thinking a lot these days about the future of sports journalism. The occasion is Poynter's second Sports Journalism Summit. From April 18 to 20, as many as 150 sports journalists, young and old, but mostly young, will convene here in St. Petersburg, Fla., to talk about their craft and their future. That future can be described -- like everything else in the news media world these days -- as bad or good, bleak or sunny, demoralizing or exciting, iconoclastic or breathtakingly innovative.

In other words, no one knows for sure.

I don't do crystal balls, but I've borrowed my friend's Magic 8-Ball to help me answer my own questions about the sports journalism craft. As I hold the 8-Ball in my hand, I confess to having a brief vision of Jeanette Lee, the Black Widow, the world’s most recognizable pool champ.

Are you really thinking about Jeanette Lee?

(8-Ball: As I see it, yes.) I grew up in the '50s and '60s, watching and playing the big three: baseball, basketball, and football. What fascinates me is how my passion for sports has expanded. I have less loyalty to the big three, but, on any given night, I could be watching or reading about soccer, hockey, boxing, poker, women's 9-ball, a little NASCAR, golf, pro-wrestling, even the Ultimate Fighting Championship. If I were beginning as a sports writer, the world would look like a gigantic playground. I'd want to write about the Super Bowl and the local horseshoe champ.

Should old school sports writers be threatened by the new school developing around the Internet?

(8-Ball: My reply is no.) There is confusion and fear throughout journalism focused on this topic. In the old days, the path was pretty clear. You started at a small paper and worked your way up to a bigger one. You covered prep sports and climbed your way to the college and professional ranks. If you were good, you could become a columnist. In your fantasies, you could write for Sports Illustrated and make a bundle writing books. But then came sports talk radio, ESPN, Web sites, multimedia and blogs. I think this means more paths to success, not fewer.

Continue, wise master.

(8-Ball: Cannot predict now.) I'm fascinated, for example, by the success of Bill Simmons, the franchise columnist and blogger for ESPN.com. To the hot, young, irreverent bloggers, Simmons may seem hopelessly mainstream. Hell, he works for ESPN -- and has written a book! But for a decade, he has created something new and different, pissing off some old school scribes along the way. For them he roots, roots, roots too much for the home team. Watches too much television. Wanders too far, on occasion, from sports into popular culture. Lusts too ickily for Anna Kournikova. But it's a frame, a voice, a point of view. Supposedly, he's like you and me: the Sports Guy, and he continues to attract an enormous readership. But here's what I like most about Bill Simmons: he writes long, long, long, and manages to carry me along with him. He's a living, breathing contradiction to the contemporary wisdom that readers don't have time or interest to read, especially online.

But you're an old school guy. You read Red Smith. Aren't you offended by some of these dramatic shifts in the culture of sports journalism?

(8-Ball: Don't count on it!) Many of the new school forms encourage reader or fan feedback. The blogger is less of a voice from Olympus, and more of a convener of the tribe. The challenge is always the same: moderation and mediation. The blogger's edge often comes from the rejection of political correctness and mainstream sentimentality. I'm down (or up?) with that. What I can't abide in the feedback loop is crude incivility, expressed by anonymous voices in the form of barbaric racism, sexism, xenophobia, or homophobia. If those are the fleas that come with the dog, I want to kick the dog.

Do you think traditional sports journalists can keep the attention of a new generation of readers?

(8-Ball: Please stop shaking me.) I think we'll see two different things happen at once. A lot of young new voices will come along, and they will be more successful, sooner than their predecessors. But think about this: Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon (a couple of geezers) attract a young audience for PTI. Woody Paige (a handsome geezer) is popular with young readers and viewers. On college campuses, Dick Vitale has the profile of a rock star. John Walsh, the executive editor of ESPN, argues that success comes from curiosity and passion. I would add that new school fame often comes more from old school virtues than we might think: seeing the world as a storehouse of story ideas; finding things out and checking them out; working hard; writing in an authentic voice.

Why do we still care so much about sports?

(8-Ball: Please wipe off your fingerprints and put me down.) For lots of reasons, but not the most commonly cited one, that sports offers entertainment and escape from the hardships of life. I think it goes much deeper than that. First of all, sports has been a doorway of liberation in the culture, a way that marginalized groups worked their way to the mainstream. Think Joe DiMaggio (as a representative of the Italian-American community), or Jackie Robinson, or Billie Jean King. Sports is a source of civic pride, as any parent (like me) who has watched a child win a state championship can attest. Even deeper, it's a symbolic (supposedly safe) way in which a culture establishes and tests its most important virtues: courage, loyalty, selflessness, patience, the ability to recover from devastating loss. That's why sports will always attract such talented storytellers.