"Sports Journalism" Archive

In “where you can find me news” I was recently quoted in a story about more women playing fantasy football. For the past few years outlets have been focusing more on women. That includes the NFL. They’ve made more clothing for women and teams are having ladies night and things of that nature.

Now that 40% of NFL fans are women, it makes sense that we’re taking more to Fantasy Football. There’s been an uptick in female participation over the last 2-3 years. Craig Johnson over at HLNTV asked me why. Here’s the excerpt:

“I think women are attracted to fantasy football because it’s a natural rite of passage for many fans,” said Jessica Danielle, a sports blogger who runs PlayerPerspective.com. “Now that the female football fan base has grown it makes sense that women would take the next step and start to show their skill at picking players who will produce from week to week. Plus, money leagues appeal to the gambler in any fan,” she said.

To read the entire article head over to HLNTV. [Fantasy Football: Don't Hate the Player. Source: HLNTV.com]

Former Safety Darren Sharper is one of 4 new former players who officially join NFL network this season. I hate writing “former” cause it makes me feel old. ugh!

Both Donovan McNabb and Darren Sharper have been fabulous on television in my opinion. It looks like the NFL network agrees cause they announced they’ve both been hired yesterday. Or maybe the NFL network is like every other network who will hire any star whether they’re good or not. Either way, they have two winners here. 

McNabb is very sharp, but Sharper is even better to me. The thing I like about Sharp is that he doesn’t bash current players but he doesn’t kiss their asses either. He has a balanced approach to commentating I think people will enjoy assuming he keeps up the same style he brought during his appearances on the network last season.

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Respected writer Fareed Zakaria is the latest to be caught using some unknowing soul as his own personal Cyrano de Bergerac.

I’m alarmed by the number of plagiarism incidents that have been uncovered recently. The quick succession of those cases — ESPN entertainment writer ( copied almost directly from Wikipedia), ESPNews (where an anchor read on air text from the basketball blog RealGM.com, Jonah Lehrer (who made up quotes from Bob Dylan for his book “Imagine,”  and now Fareed Zakaria (who plagiarized a New Yorker writer on the topic of gun control)-has made me start thinking about why all this is happening. 

Two things jump out to me —  the need to produce so much content all the time AND the quest for notoriety in an industry that rewards it above all else.

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I love good news especially when it’s about me. This month, the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education named me one of their Sports Journalists of Color for 2012. They are featuring a journo each day during the month of July-you’ll see me listed at July 13. I’m really honored to make this list because it inclues some amazing talents! I’m definitely going to check out the other writers featured.  

The Maynard Institute does a lot of great work and I read the site frequently to keep up with what’s going on in the media business as it pertains to minorities. So if that’s an area of interest for you and you haven’t added them to your reading list, please do so.

I definitely want to give a big thank you to the Maynard Institute for including me, it’s much appreciated. 

I’ve said before that one of the primary reasons I started my site is because I felt that athletes-many of whom are minorities-deserved more respectful consideration in the media and I wanted to be a part of providing it. I wanted to be a voice of reason and not just someone who reacts to things without considering the fact that these men and woman are human beings with feelings, families, and issues just like the rest of us. But…I also wanted to have fun with it.  A year and a half later this site has grown more than I could have expected. And certainly, it’s difficult for a site that focuses on commentary rather than salacious nuggets to get a look in this crowded digital space. 

Anyway, it’s always nice to be recognized! 

NFL network is looking to expand it’s reach. And that means they’re going to have to develop some live programming outside of the normal 3 hours or so they typically have during the NFL season. I knew that the network was possibly looking to compete more head on with the other networks when it comes to pre and post game coverage. But now they’re apparently looking to add a morning show to the lineup as well.

NFL Network is considering launching a live morning studio show this summer and has begun the process of identifying possible hosts and reporters. Sports Business Journal reported on this in May:

The network hired Marc Watts to fill a new position as director of media talent for NFL Media. Watts, who started April 23, said his first order of business is to find “four fresh faces” that could be used for such a show.

Specific plans for the morning show have not been finalized, including its name or its time slot. But NFL executives said they hope to get the early morning show ready as soon as July to coincide with the beginning of training camp.

“We’re looking to get on during earlier dayparts when all this breaking news is happening,” NFL Network executive producer Eric Weinberger said last Wednesday, the same day New Orleans Saints player suspensions were announced in the morning. “Mornings are going to become a big daypart for us.

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