Overcoming Your Fears in Journalism

“Don’t be afraid, just do it.” – Steve Jobs.

This is the message that ESPN.com’s senior editor of blogs, Matt Lee, so often directed towards Steve Fox’s Sports Journalism class during his talk with the class on Friday.

He pulled the “don’t be afraid, just do it,” quote from Jobs’ biography, and applied it as advice, throughout his speech.

“If you want to be a journalist, don’t be afraid, just do it,” said Lee.

Lee used Jobs’ advice when he attended George Mason University as an undergraduate student studying journalism. George Mason is not in the same breath as the upper echelon journalism schools, said Lee.

“That was a chip on my shoulder,” said Lee.

In his first year at college, Lee was not involved on campus. He was afraid.

But after a year, he broke out of his shell and joined the campus newspaper. Eventually, the time came for Lee to interview for jobs.

His first interview came in D.C., and halfway through the interview he knew that he wasn’t getting the job. Instead of becoming discouraged, he used the interview as practice. 

“If you apply, and they tell you no, then you’ve lost nothing, you’ve just gained experience in interviewing,” said Lee.

Lee left school seeking one of the three career paths available to journalism students in the late 1990s: a newspaper, a radio station or a television station.

When a job came along at the Washington Post’s website, he was afraid.

At the time, many viewed the dot.com boom as a “fad” that wouldn’t last, and he described the Post’s website as “primitive” at the time.

But he decided to overcome his fears and take a chance with the job.

After a number of years with the Post, Lee moved to ESPN for a job as the lead editor of the Insider section of the website. The job came after Lee, again, decided to chase his dreams rather than stay stationary with fear.

One of his former co-workers at the Post notified him that ESPN was hiring. The prospect of working at ESPN was daunting to him. But he decided to throw his hat in the ring and see what happens. He applied for a job on the news desk and did not get it. However, because he applied, he got his name out there to ESPN, who later hired him for the Insider position.

Lee now works as an editor of the ESPN.com blog network. Who knows if that opportunity would have arisen if he hadn’t mustered the courage to at least try for a job at ESPN.

The final thing that Lee emphasized to the class that resonated with me was the concept of embracing the unknown. In one of his power point slides, he displayed all the technological advances that had been made since he graduated college. Facebook, Twitter, the iPhone, Instagram and even Google did not exist.

This made me think about the technological advances that are inevitable in the next 15 years. And then I started to think that another Facebook, or Twitter, or Google is out there, yet to be discovered. And that scared the hell out of me.

But then I remember Steve Jobs.

Robert Griffin III and concussions in the NFL

One of the most discussed topics in the week leading up to Week 6 in the NFL was the health of Robert Griffin III, the Washington Redskins’ star rookie quarterback.

Griffin suffered a concussion in Week 5 of Washington’s 24-17 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. Once the game ended, speculation overwhether Griffin would play the following week began.

He ended up playing this week, and playing very well. Griffin threw for 182 yards, ran for 138 yards, and accounted for two touchdowns in his team’s 38-26 win. His performance was not emblematic of a man who’d been knocked out of a football game just one week earlier.

Despite the strong performance, I still think Washington made the wrong call by playing him this week.

Concussions have been arguably the most talked about topic in football over the past few years. Last week, concussed Kansas City Chiefs tight end Kevin Boss was ruled out for the remainder of the season. He’s one of many players to have had their careers, and sometimes lives, ruined by concussions.

It’s gotten to the point where the longevity of the NFL has come into question.

So when I heard that the face of the Redskins franchise, the player that they gave up three first round picks and a second round pick for and anointed as their starter from the moment he arrived in Washington, was starting this week in a relatively meaningless game when considering the situation from a long-term view, I was disappointed.

I know Griffin passed all the concussion tests, and that every game in the NFL matters, but I can’t agree with putting your organization’s best player – who happens to be vulnerable – in a situation that may cause him harm.

I think in the coming days we’ll hear from many that the Redskins made the right choice because of his performance Sunday. I disagree with this line of thinking. It’s an argument based on the outcome of a decision, rather than an argument based on the process of a decision.

One little variable changes, and the narrative changes drastically. Can you imagine the vitriol towards the Redskins organization if Griffin had suffered a head injury in the game? Instead of people blabbering about how Washington made the right decision to start Griffin, the collective football community would have torched the Redskins’ organization for their mistreatment of the situation.

Obviously this story was brought to the limelight because of the status of the player. Many players suffer concussions in one week, and then return the next with no complaints about player safety being made.

Because of this, perhaps the NFL needs to make more definitive rules on concussion treatment. What if a player, in addition to having to pass the team’s concussion tests, was required to sit at least one week following a concussion. At the least, the NFL would be sending a message to its fans that they’re taking concussions very seriously, and doing everything possible to ensure player safety in the league.