By Terry Collins
NSNC Member
Little did sportswriters and columnists Clarence E. Hill, Jr. and Marcus Thompson II know that covering Super Bowl LIII in Miami might be the last major sporting event they cover in-person in 2020.
During that time, the sports world was already reeling from a major tragedy – the fatal helicopter crash of NBA superstar Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and seven others.
But the global COVID-19 pandemic, and the worldwide uprisings calling for an end to systemic racism, has changed all of that, and, essentially, how they do their jobs.
“That’s what so surreal about everything. We were still caught up with Kobe’s death on Super Bowl weekend, and, certainly, you didn’t think that wasn’t going to be the most significant part of 2020,” recalled Hill, an NFL beat writer and columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “Yes, his death is impactful, but the other two events are also affecting so many lives.”
For sportswriters and columnists, stadiums and arenas are their offices. The tunnels, dugouts, press boxes, locker rooms, even the parking lots, are their workspaces. But those amenities aren’t as available. Instead of shoe-leather reporting and face-to-face interaction for access, these journalists now rely heavily on technology to reach out to the teams they cover. The regimen includes registering to get on videoconference platforms and conference calls to get their stories, all for personal health and safety.
Look no further than longtime Los Angeles Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke, who just recovered from COVID-19, and wrote an emotional column about his struggles with the virus. He has some sage advice for the sports world, too.
“My illness has further convinced me that organized team sports played outside an NBA or NHL-style bubble don’t have a chance this fall,” said Plaschke. He is urging all of college football to cancel their seasons, NFL training camps not to start, and baseball to get a postseason bubble if it wants to compete its season.
But as of right now, it’s sports not as usual. In fact, it can be a bit scary, personally and professionally.
“It’s actually a bit more difficult. When there were no sports and we had to wing it, it was basically an extended offseason, where we have to pick up the phone, text, and contact our sources,” said Thompson, a columnist for The Athletic based in the San Francisco Bay Area. “Now, there’s still no locker-room access; everything is mostly on Zoom. This is so dramatically different than anything we’ve ever done before, and that’s been the rough part.
“I can only imagine what happens when the NFL starts,” he said.
Hopefully, a bit more access, said Hill, who has extensively covered the Dallas Cowboys for the Star-Telegram since 1997, one of the longest-tenured NFL reporters. Hill already has a tough job writing about arguably sports’ most popular and valued franchise (a reported $5.5 billion), competing with dozens of local, national, and international reporters.
Reporters just started being allowed to watch preseason practices, albeit at a distance, Hill said. He’s used to providing such intimate details to readers, including who’s going to call the offensive plays – new head coach Mike McCarthy or offensive coordinator Kellen Moore? How does star quarterback Dak Prescott really feel about not getting a long-term contract? Who are the surprise and unsung players to make the team?
Also, no random opportunities to chat it up alongside Jerry Jones, who in Hill’s words is “the most accessible owner” in the NFL, maybe in all of sports.
“We’re still trying to feel our way around everything, much like how the players are,” said Hill, who as of mid-August still didn’t know if he would be traveling to cover Cowboys road games. “It’s just our new norm right now. We’ve got to come up with different ways to tell the stories.”
Up until major pro sports’ recent return, sportswriters and columnists had very little to report about live events. They either wrote ad nauseam about when games were returning, or how leagues were preparing to take unprecedented precautions amid a pandemic. Some scribes like Hill briefly changed their beats altogether and began writing about the virus’ impact on our daily lives.
Hill, who began working from home in March, not only wrote about coronavirus-related sports stories, but also business, and which counties in the populous Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex saw spikes in coronavirus cases. He recalled his early reporting days covering general news, and how those skills helped him cover sports-related crimes, killings, and other off-the-field news.
“It was all hands on deck,” said Hill, who also hosts shows on ESPN Radio in Dallas. “The days were just as long as we were covering some different topics. Our newspaper was having some of the most-read stuff during the peak of coronavirus coverage.
“There’s no doubt we are offering a public service,” he said.
Still, Hill “never ventured” that the Super Bowl was likely the last sold-out sporting event in the United States before the pandemic.
Thompson recalled at the Super Bowl that some reporters from China, where coronavirus was initially overtaking their country and other parts of the world, asked NFL players about the virus, which they had little to no knowledge of.
He thinks that “it’s a blessing in disguise” that the San Francisco 49ers lost the big game to the Kansas City Chiefs, avoiding a big victory parade attended by fans and a possible spread of the virus. California currently has the highest number of coronavirus cases in the U.S.
“We were spared by the greatness of (Chiefs quarterback) Patrick Mahomes, and a non-holding call on (Niners defensive end) Nick Bosa saved the day and probably a whole lot of lives.”
Thompson said he remembers as the virus began impacting the U.S. how the NBA and soon the NHL, Major League Baseball, and college athletics all decided to shut down. He and Hill say they not only had to figure out what their jobs would be like – including whether they would still have one – but also how to protect their families and loved ones.
“Honestly, some of these stories we were writing at times didn’t seem relevant. It’s a whole new world, and we’re all being challenged by it. But compared to 175,000 families who lost their loved ones and the 40 million who have lost their jobs, we’re blessed,” Thompson said.
“We have jobs and opportunities; it’s obviously not the worst thing in the world, but it is different, and we have to adjust to it,” Thompson added.
Additionally, Hill, who’s Black, said he had fellow sportswriters asking him for advice in the wake of the deaths of Amaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd and widespread calls to end systemic racism that followed. He didn’t shy away from them.
“They asked me how to handle different things, how to go about covering the protests as far as handling them because all of our beats had spilled over into covering news-related topics,” he said.
Thompson, who’s also Black, said he experienced similar situations. “I had every white person who is my friend either asking me ‘What’s going on?’, what can they do to help, or avoiding me altogether because they don’t know what to say.”
Both say they were prepared for it because they have been covering the ebbs and flows since Colin Kaepernick in 2016 and other athletes began speaking out more about social and racial injustice since the uprisings in Ferguson, Missouri, after the fatal officer-involved shooting of Michael Brown, in 2014.
Now, both say they have to be focused as their stories will now go beyond the final score as long as athletes keep bringing up social injustices alongside with their play.
“We need all of that; the ingenuity, creativity, hustle, desire, and public-service element to find and tell these important stories,” Thompson said. “All of that is what we are drawing on now.”
Hill agrees.
“Sportswriters are used to switching gears,” he said.
Terry Collins is a San Francisco Bay Area-based journalist who is a front page editor for HuffPost.com. He most recently did work for Fortune.com and has previously worked at CNET (CBS Interactive), the Associated Press, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Find him on Twitter.
Image Credit:
Paul Lander is a writer/columnist, a 2X NSNC contest winner, and is either, presently, washing his hands or in-between times spent washing his hands.
Dan McConnell cartoons in Cashmere, Washington. His work has appeared in MAD, American Bystander, Weekly Humorist, Humor Outcasts, Humor Times, etc.
<p>*This article first appeared in the September 1, 2020 NSNC Newsletter. <br></p>Become an NSNC member to enjoy articles like these in you inbox and so much more. Learn more here.
