BCS Championship Game - If This Bores You to Tears, Ummm…Oh Well…
Posted January 4th, 2007 by George Thomas
Yeah, it's my second day here in Scottsdale and at least I am coherent. I couldn't say the same for yesterday. Not even close. I was just cruisin' a little.
But today was a day to get to the heart of the matter. My colleague, Marla Ridenour, got to hit up the Buckeyes in interviews. Me? I got the Florida side of things. Not a bad assignment consdering there were plenty of decent quotes to come from the exercise. They should appear in Friday's paper.
This is where my further education into the realm of sportswriting continues. For those of you who've not been paying attention, catch up already. I used to wax poetic about film. Well I wrote about movies, but there was little poetry to worry about. At any rate, another lesson I've learned since entering this universe - sportswriting is a lot like sports. In what ways? It follows thusly:
Patience: You must have this quality to get your "in" as it were. Apparently in today's sportswriting environment this is essential. Why? Because it gives you the ability to sit wait…and wait…and wait…and wait some more while coaches and athletes coiff their hair. This happened to me today while waiting for the Florida Gators as they went through a full workout and drills after field practice that would make them, well…late.
Mental tenacity: If you don't know why this is necessary or like sports read above. Or take into consideration how teams and indviduals respond to adversity. Something goes wrong you, either brush yourself off and get back up or you turn into Al Bundy of Married With Children fame. I apparently possess this quality because I ably stuck it out until Florida's players and coaches made an appearance.
Conditioning: This is most important. You have to be at least in pretzels-and-beer shape to be able to dash from subject to subject to get those minimal quotes you need to build a story around. No, it doesn't involve being stuck in a buffet line, although that is much preferable. It does, however, mean that you have to have all senses on the look out so that you can dash about on a moment's notice and to get a quote worth using.
Positioning: Couple this with conditioning and this is probably the most important element of covering sports. Why? Because when you get your three minutes of time with a star athlete, you have to be able to manipulate your body like a snake to be able to get your recorder close enough to an interview topic's puss to get audible audio. The problems you might incur? Well if you're not used to lifting weights, be prepared to have your arm change to spaghetti before your eyes. Then there's the chance that a TV camera will inadvertently nip your ear while Joe-Good-Looking-TV-Guy tries to get his bit of coverage.
By it's all said and done, I might deserve a Pulitzer or the Heisman.
