Sports Team

There's a reason strong racial sterotypes remain in sports media -- especially at the most senior levels. There are few minorities in charge of daily newspapers. Studies by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports have indicated this. A study for the Associated Press Sports Editors proved this. The numbers in the 2006 Racial and Gender Report Card are jolting. For example, only five African-Americans run a sports department for a daily newspaper in the United States. That's 1.56 percentage. Only nine Latinos are sports editors, compared to 303 whites, according to the report, which covered more than 300 Associated Press newspapers. Read the rest of the report by going to my posting at the Journal of Sports Media .

Veteran sports journalist Buddy Martin is correct. Sports journalists do not know enough about their own history. We fault professional baseball players for not knowing about Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron, and pro football players for knowing little about Johnny Unitas and Gale Sayers, yet we do not always know enough about our own profession. “We’re just as guilty,” said Martin, an editor who has accomplished quite a bit himself. He has served as sports editor at several newspapers, including the New York Daily News, St. Peterburg Times and Denver Post. Plus, he has earned an Emmy Award and is co-director of The Sports Journalism Summit at the Poynter Institute . How many sports journalists know anything about pioneers like Grantland Rice , Graham McNamee, Red Barber , and Paul Gallico? How many have read writers who helped elevate the profession like Red Smith and Shirley Povich. Fewer still know about the contributions of early black sports journalists like Wendell Smith , who played a...

I continue to hear editors and instructors tell students to put the score in the first three paragraphs of a game story , but that’s antiquated thinking, in most cases – especially in games where everybody knows the score. Most fans will know the results before they read your game story. Readers typically do not read stories to get the scores anymore; instead, they read to re-live the game (especially if their team won.) In print, most newspapers will include a scoreline above the story for home-town games. That’s what the Cleveland Plain Dealer did last night when the Spurs completed a sweep of the Cavaliers (see page above, right). And that’s what most newspapers do for big games, whether that is an NBA championship or a prep baseball district playoff. If the game is big, the results are frequently known before fans read the story. Fans can follow games online or can scan for scores on their phones. (We’ll see how technology, like the new iPhone continues to change the media landsca...

So now the NFL is also trying to limit newspaper coverage of their teams, something that seems absurdly ridiculous. A newspaper offering (free!) coverage that will promote and market its team, the ultimate goal of every public relations and advertising manager. I guess the NFL believes it is above such petty coverage, that it can market itself just fine, thank you very much. Where have you gone, Pete Rozelle? The Houston Chronicle's NFL beat reporter ">takes a humorous swipe at the NFL's rule that online sites limit videos to 45 seconds and that they use only portions of taped interviews. The video, which far exceeds the limit by going about two minutes, 50 seconds, includes Texans owner Bob McNair and several players. (I'm sure they'll be fined for this inexcusable swipe at the almighty NFL.) I read that the video has already been pulled from YouTube . The NFL does not want competition for its own web site that now includes more and more streaming video. On ...

Too many youth league coaches believe their job is to win, something that pushy parents remind them. (When they are not complaining about playing time for their kids.) Youth leagues are really for developing skills, whether that is hitting, fielding, running, sliding or pitching. Few kids will recall a team's record in four or five years, about the time some of the kids will begin feeling pain in a shoulder or arm or elbow thanks to an overzealous and egocentric coach. No players are more prone to injuries than pitchers. That's why sports writers should step in and start counting pitches. And that's why we should work on some more in-depth pieces that chronicle these issues, stories that can educate parents who otherwise would have no idea that throwing 100 pitches three to four times a week is not okay. Many parents trust these coaches to do the right thing. Sometimes, the coach might not know better. Remember, many youth league coaches are drafted into service because no...

So the NCAA just ejected a sports writer from a regional baseball game for blogging. Just as I told my class today, sports is all about making money. Sadly, that also includes those who run collegiate athletics. NCAA officials are concerned about live broadcast rights, believing such blogging will affect its ratings, so they told a beat reporter for Louisville Courier-Journal to leave the stadium in the fifth inning of the Cardinals’ 20-2 rout of Oklahoma State in a baseball supersectional that sent Louisville to the College World Series. The newspaper claims it will fight this policy as a First Amendment issue. Really, this is really a common sense issue. The NCAA receives hundreds of thousands of column inches of free advertising each year from reporters at professional and college news publications, not to mention from bloggers. Certainly, news publications also benefit, selling newspapers to readers about these events. It’s a symbiotic relationship that has worked for a hundred ...

Interested in covering a professional baseball team next summer? Then, check out the following information just sent to me by the assistant managing editor for MLB.com . Sportswriters typically have a more challenging time than news reporters when it comes to landing a summer internship, mostly because it is usually a slower time for many sports staffs that focus on high school sports. But don’t disregard a news internship at a newspaper where you can sharpen your reporting and writing skills, something that will make you a much better sports reporter in the long run. As far as internships go, the one at MLB is a pretty good one, one that pays $340-$400 a week. This is the same salary most of our summer interns get as they work at newspapers across Illinois. Looks like the candidates will also receive valuable experience working with professional journalists while adding equally important clips. This internship also offers multimedia experience, something that will also prove invaluabl...

Here's a link to a class syllabus for a course I start teaching tomorrow, entitled Sports and the Media. Sorry for the time off, but I had been working on several work and home projects. I have a lengthy list of issues and tips to address in the coming weeks. Hope your summer is going well. -30-