J470: Great Reporting

In talking to my boss at my internship this past summer, she described it best: the difference between news reporting and sports reporting is just in the statistics, numbers and teams you are reporting.

But at their cores they are the same. They are all about telling a story. It’s just who or what you’re telling that story about which changes.

As much as sports is about the games and moments on the playing surfaces that bring us into them, they gain a much greater scope. We become immersed in their players and what they do off the field.

We connect with them and want to know more about what makes them people. Then, there are scandals and controversies that come to light. And there are reporters who uncover these details. They might be doing it within the context of sport but it is just as serious as the matter that may be covered in the newspaper’s front section.

Woodward and Bernstein uncovered the Watergate scandal by investigating and digging deep, by questioning what other people would not question. While sports do not take on the same social significance as a presidential investigation, they should not be deemed irrelevant.



The investigation by the San Francisco Chronicle reporters hits on the very same lines of thinking that Woodword and Bernstein did. They uncover a story that serves an interest to the greater public. Fans of sports and non-fans of sports can all look at these types of stories because of their social relevance.

Sports reporters too are investigators. In the excerpt from Game of Shadows, there are numerous specific details uncovered such as the drugs used, the timeline and even as detailed as the drug alphabet used on the training calendars.

But sports reporting is also great writing. When reading ‘Eyes of the Storm’ by Gary Smith, you feel like Smith is telling you a series of stories about Pat Summitt, bringing you into her very life. With every so perfectly told detail you feel like you’re in Summitt’s living room, at her practice, feeling the emotions of Michelle Marciniak.



And in some cases, you do not even have to know the story’s protagonist to be transfixed by it. Unlike with Summitt or Bonds, before reading Ted Miller’s piece, I did not know who Anthony Vontoure was. But after reading Miller’s piece, I knew details of Vontoure’s life, what made him click, what made him laugh, what tore him apart at the end of his life.

Sports reporting is serious reporting. The article ‘Coaches Who Prey,’ reveals statistics of coaches who are harassing or assaulting young girls. It is eye-opening to read and something that the general public should know. Sports or not, these stories are compelling reads.