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. 

Sean Glennon talks new book, "Tom Brady vs. the NFL: The Case for Football's Greatest Quarterback"

Forget about Joe Montana's 4-0 record in the Super Bowl, or that he's never thrown an interception in the big game; Sean Glennon firmly believes that Tom Brady reigns supreme when it comes to the National Football League's greatest quarterback.

Glennon took the time to speak to Steve Fox's Sports Journalism class about his newly released book, "Tom Brady vs. the NFL: The Case for Football's Greatest Quarterback" on Tuesday.

Glennon said that he used a mix of analytical and anecdotal evidence to make the case that Brady, the New England Patriots quarterback and winner of three Super Bowls, trumps all NFL "passers." A list that includes Montana, Bart Starr, Peyton Manning, Terry Bradshaw and a handful of former and current greats.

Glennon started his career writing about arts, and said that he "backed into sports journalism."

His blog about Patriots fans jumpstarted his career, and with this blog, he found a topic he wanted to continue to write about: the New England Patriots.

In 2004, he published his first book, "This Pats Year," which focused on Patriot fans.

In 2008, he wrote about the history of the Patriots in his second book, "The Good, the Bad & the Ugly."

Two years later, came "Game Changers," a book chronicling the greatest plays in Patriots history.

After "Game Changers," his publishers asked for a book about Tom Brady. He knew Charles Pierce had done "Moving the Chains: Tom Brady and the Pursuit of Everything" in 2006. Glennon felt like he couldn't tell Brady's story as well as Pierce did, so he opted to avoid the biography route.

Instead, he chose to make a case for Tom Brady as the NFL's greatest quarterback.

Glennon struggled with a number of things in the making of his book.

He said "stat's don't interest people, stories do." But, given that he had no access to Brady or really anyone in the Patriots organization, how would he be able to tell an interesting story without overloading on stats?

Glennon pointed to Pat Kerwin, of NFL.com, as someone who helped guide him through the predicament. Kerwin ended up writing the forward for Glennon's book.

He also wrestled with the reality that Brady may not be the best quarterback in the NFL. Montana and Brady are two of the first names mentioned when discussing this topic, and proving that Brady is superior to Montana was one of his biggest challenges.

One of Glennon's key arguments is that "there's a reason Montana never won a 5th Super Bowl. Because he kept losing conference championships."

Glennon said that he didn’t care if people disagreed with his point, as long as they acknowledged that his opinion was well thought out and sensible. He made it clear that younger quarterbacks like Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger could usurp Brady in the coming years.

Glenon said that he expects his publishers to ask him to write a book about Patriots' coach Bill Belichick next. 

Sports blogging still has a long way to go

The thing that bothers me about the professional world of sports' resistance to bloggers is that a lot of them are no longer the stereotypical, fanboy bloggers living out of their mother's basement. So when I read articles about Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wanting to ban bloggers from his press conferences -- because obviously allowing a few reporters that aren't with a professional organization is the absolute worst thing in the world -- I get frustrated. There is so much good sports writing prevalent today that could be considered "blogging." Take Grantland, a project headed by ESPN's star Bill Simmons, for example. That's technically a blog, correct? Yet, Simmons has assembled an all-star staff that would stack up against any other professional organization. So it's disappointing to see that Grantland can't get credentialed to certain events simply because their title isn't the New York Times, the Boston Globe, etc. It's disappointing because the best writers, and Grantland absolutely has some of the best writers, should be covering the most significant events.

In my opinion, we need to start to wean ourselves off of the word "blogger." The term carries a negative connotation, even though today's definition of a blogger is vastly different than what you'd find in the infancy of sports blogging. Grantland is not the only example here. SB Nation and Sports on Earth also churns out some of the best content to offer, but still they don't have close to the same access as newspapers and professional organizations such as ESPN and Sports Illustrated. Although sports blogging faces an uphill battle, the world of professional sports is beginning to open their doors to the Grantland's and SB Nation's of the sports blogging world. Now, if we can reshape wide-spread beliefs about the lines between bloggers and journalists, a real breakthrough in sports journalism can be made.

Sources: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/21/business/media/21bloggers.html?pagewanted=2