{"id":85,"date":"2011-10-03T10:32:40","date_gmt":"2011-10-03T15:32:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/?p=85"},"modified":"2011-10-03T10:33:51","modified_gmt":"2011-10-03T15:33:51","slug":"todays-athlete-tomorrows-journalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/2011\/10\/03\/todays-athlete-tomorrows-journalist\/","title":{"rendered":"Today’s Athlete…Tomorrow’s Journalist?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It can be totally unnerving and often times not very enlightening but being in a locker room is the only way to build the relationships you need to be a successful sports journalist…Taking pot shots from afar isn’t just bad reporting, it’s unfair to those you are covering…<\/p>\n

Let’s be honest, when you walk into that room, you need something…And unless you’ve decided to be nothing more than a “human mic stand”, you won’t get what ever that is \u00a0without doing some legwork…It takes time to forge relationships in a locker room, just as it does anywhere else in life…Common sense, manners and some knowledge go a long way…<\/p>\n

Athletes are high profile, driven people…They know you have a job to do but they expect professionalism in return for their time…”Don’t be intimidated by a locker room, by an athlete, says Tedy Brusch<\/a>i, the former New England Patriots linebacker, now with ESPN…and don’t be afraid of the word “NO”…In fact use it to your advantage!…”I said no a lot of time”, Bruschi remembered, “but (now) I’m Tedy Bruschi from ESPN \u00a0and when i ask ” got a minute” and the athletes answers no not right now I say “next time?”…If you ask him next time, he’ll remember the next time you come up again “oh yeah, ok, what do you need”…It sounds so simple but then again who said it had to be hard?…<\/p>\n

Joining Bruschi at a recent Sports Journalism Seminar was Boston Globe Columnist Kevin Paul Dupont<\/a>…A veteran of the Boston media sprts scene, Dupont recounted a time he came face to face with a player who wasn’t as accommodating…Dupont thought and wrote that a certain veteran should have retired …The next day, what ensued, wasn’t in any journalism manual for young reporters…”I thought all the players were on the ice but he was waiting for me…he put me up against the wall and put his stick blade under my throat…he threatened me.”…Dupont reported the matter to team officials but needless to say, he never had much a relationship with the player ever again, even after that player moved into management himself…<\/p>\n

As is usually the case, what happens on a day to day basis is probably somewhere in the middle of these experiences but if you approach it like you’ve been there before (even if you haven’t) and remember this is his\/her work space too, you will figure it out…You never know, one day that athlete you’re asking for an interview may be asking you<\/em> for advice…just don’t tell em “Next time”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It can be totally unnerving and often times not very enlightening but being in a locker room is the only way to build the relationships you need to be a successful sports journalist…Taking pot shots from afar isn’t just bad reporting, it’s unfair to those you are covering… Let’s be honest, when you walk into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":901,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/901"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions\/90"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/fshorr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}